Total pages in book: 32
Estimated words: 30055 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 150(@200wpm)___ 120(@250wpm)___ 100(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 30055 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 150(@200wpm)___ 120(@250wpm)___ 100(@300wpm)
The shocked look in her eyes breaks into fear and tears stream down her cheeks and I want to kill someone.
“You’re out, baby. I’ve got you.” My words don’t seem to make her uncomfortable, but her shoulders shake and her bottom lip quivers as she tries to hold back more tears.
I was just about to ask her if there was a fire alarm when junior comes out from somewhere between the firetrucks and EMS heading our way with a phone to his ear.
“Come with me.” He snaps and I want to do the same to his neck.
Kristina looks at him, then back to me. “What happened?”
“I don’t know. They have the fire under control but your father wants to talk to you. Inside.”
He gives me a look and my fingers twitch, wanting to lay him out right here.
“Okay.” She answers, her voice thin.
“Curious you were here.” He says to me, and I’m on my feet with my finger in his chest a second later.
“You got something to say, don’t be a pussy and dance around it in your tutu.”
He keeps his eyes on me for a second, then steps to Kristina. “We’ll need to call your father. The fire chief needs to talk to you too.” Junior clenches his jaw as I sniff and use every ounce of my willpower not to drive my fist down his throat and pull out his heart.
“Okay.” She nods as she stands, and junior grabs her by the hand and starts to drag her away, but she turns, jerking her arm away and comes back to stand in front of me, her eyes on mine. “Thank you.” Her voice is tiny and she pinches her lips together, but her fluttering eyes tell me what I want to know.
“You’re welcome.”
“I—” She looks over her shoulder to where junior is looking like he just lost his favorite teddy bear. “I have to go...I’m sure they’ll want to talk to you too.”
“They’ll know where to find me.” I answer, and junior is calling her name.
“I don’t even know your name...” She presses her fingers to her lips.
“Henry. Henry James Phillips.” It’s been so long since I told anyone my real name, it feels foreign when I say it. Most of my brothers in the club don’t even know my real name. “But they call me Wrath.”
“Wrath.” She repeats, a little smile creeping to her lips.
She starts to step away, then spins and throws her arms around my neck, hanging on for dear life as I stare down fuck face over her shoulder, wrapping my hands around her back and whispering in her ear.
“You’ll be okay. I’ll make sure of it.”
5 | Kristina
My head is a little fuzzy as I tip back the final sip of my Long Island, and I thought it would help my headache but it’s just made it worse.
I barely slept. William insisted on spending the night and I could hear him walking up and down the hall outside my bedroom door at all hours. It was creepy, as though he was expecting me to open it and invite him in.
I texted Jillian through the night and she came and picked me up a little before noon, and took me out for a drink and a pizza, which has helped, but the tension in my neck and my headache are making it hard to enjoy.
Jillian comes back from using the restroom and sits back down in the booth across from me. “You okay, for real real?”
I nod, biting into my bottom lip and running my hands down the tops of my thighs.
“Yeah. I just feel...” I pause, thinking. “Like I’m disconnected. Like it was a dream.”
“Well, you look a little like you’re not all there.”
She’s right. Even after I showered and put on some make up and clothes to come and meet her, I looked in the mirror and saw I was pale. I threw my hair into a messy bun instead of my usual neat styling, and there were dark circles under my eyes.
“So.” She starts, sliding another piece of pizza onto her plate, then licking her fingers. “The motorcycle dude just showed up? Doesn’t that seem a little weird?”
I shrug, wishing I had asked him why he was there at the time. “I guess. A little.”
She raises her eyebrows. “And then William was there too?” She shakes her head. “All feels a little funky to me.”
“I’m sure the fire department, the sheriff and the insurance company—and the National Baptist Convention—will get to the bottom of it all. I think it was just a coincidence. The church is old, the wiring is old. The doors are always sticking in the spring when the place creaks and shifts, and we had all that rain last week so the wood swells...”
I’m not sure who I’m trying to convince, but Jillian looks doubtful as she reaches across the table and squeezes my hand. “You wanna come and stay with me? Or I’ll come stay with you?”