Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 87911 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87911 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
She didn’t read anything else into it, and simply held onto him, holding him as tight as she could, hoping more than anything that the pain she was feeling would go away.
“Let me take care of you and Chloe, okay?” Eagle pulled out his wallet and began to count bills.
“No,” she said, putting her hand over his wallet. “This is not your concern, and I won’t take your money.”
“I want to treat you girls. On behalf of my son and the club.”
“Not going to happen. You’re not responsible for us. Thank you for the thought though.” She let him go and climbed into her car.
She would never take club money, or that of another man.
Chapter Four
Today on her locker was “fat-arsed slut,” spelled exactly like that. Chloe tilted her head to the side. If she had magical powers, she could just swipe the nasty words away, but it looked like she was going back to the good old approach of a cloth again.
People were watching and sniggering.
She didn’t look in their direction. Turning on her heel, she made her way to the janitor’s closet. He wasn’t around, as he loved his morning coffee, so she found the hiding place for the key, reached in, and grabbed the necessary tools.
As she spun around, she knocked into someone, making her drop the water, which didn’t topple over, and landed hard on the floor on her ass.
“Shit, I’m sorry,” Alfie said.
The guy she’d run into was none other than the guy she’d been hoping to avoid.
“No worries.”
“Why do you have cleaning supplies?” Alfie helped her up as he asked the question.
“The usual. I’ve got some nice comments on my locker. I’ve got to clean them off and, seeing as the janitor likes his mornings, I do it. It’s my locker.”
“There’s no way it’s on there again.”
“Come and see if you don’t believe me.” Not that she was inviting him to spend more time with her. That wouldn’t be what she was trying to do, at all, was it?
Alfie walked with her to her locker, and sure enough, the words were still there.
“See, welcome to my world.” She got started cleaning the mess and noticed no one was talking now.
Alfie moved her to one side.
“Alfie, seriously, you don’t need to do this,” she said.
“I know, but I want to, and now that I’m doing this, maybe they’ll think twice about writing on your locker.”
Again, the whispering started up, but Alfie held her hand as he washed off the insults.
She couldn’t believe he’d taken over and was doing this for her, when he really didn’t need to.
Once he was done, he stepped back. “Grab your books. We’ll take this back and go to homeroom.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Do you want to give me your locker combination or just tell me?”
“No, I’ll do it.” She stepped forward, making sure he didn’t know it.
Today, her locker wasn’t going to play nice.
She stepped back, and tissues fell out of her locker. She hoped none of them were used. They had done this to her when all the tissues were out of a trash can, and she didn’t want to think about what was on them. She’d bought new books, and written all of her notes in brand new ones so she could burn the old ones.
“This is new,” he said.
“Not today. I sometimes get one or the other, or both. This is a both day.” She shrugged. There were some rubber gloves the janitor left her. She put them on and got to work on cleaning up the brand-new mess.
She wrinkled her nose, but so far, no smell.
Alfie didn’t help her with this, but he did drag over the trash can.
She noticed a couple of people stood away from him, almost as if they were afraid of what he’d do.
Would it be too much for her to hope he’d defend her?
Putting all the tissues in the trash, she grabbed her books, closed her locker, and made a quick new combination. She didn’t know who kept figuring it out, but she was just going to have to keep changing it, maybe daily would help.
Alfie picked up the supplies to the janitor’s closet and urged her to lead the way.
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I want to.”
She didn’t say anything as she didn’t want an audience to her questions.
Following behind him, she waited as he put the supplies back.
Hands on her hips, she waited as he turned to face her.
“Wow, are you going to spank me or something?”
“What’s going on?”
“What’s going on?”
“Yeah, and don’t pretend to be all coy like you don’t have a clue what is going on. You know something, and now, I’m curious and when I get curious, I want to know.”
Alfie smirked. “You look cute when you’re nervous.”
“I’m not stupid, Alfie. Tell me what is going on.”
“Nothing. You ever thought I’ve learned my lessons?”