Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 68538 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68538 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
She continued to ignore me. “You need to close it down.”
“Close it down?” I asked her incredulously. “I’m not closing anything down.” I paused. “Actually, I am. But only to move the bakery out of Dallas. I’m going to look at a building tomorrow.”
“You would leave your dad and Scott?” she asked, voice rising.
What was her deal with my father and Scott?
“I hate both of them, so why would their opinions matter to me whatsoever?” I questioned her. “Again, your blind allegiance to them is embarrassing. You have no freakin’ clue how they’ve treated me over the years because you willingly stick your head in the sand and drown out the world around you. And, just sayin’, but when I move the bakery to a different city, Dad won’t have the same foothold there that he does here. So maybe I’ll get to live my freakin’ life without worrying whether or not my bakery will be shut down for no fucking reason.”
She started driving faster, and my heart started to pound.
I reached for my seatbelt, pulling it across my chest.
“What are you going on about? He’s not doing anything.” She snorted, again speeding up.
My stomach summersaulted in my belly.
But of course, I was a glutton for punishment.
And, if my stepmother was going to actually listen to me for a change, who was I to waste an opportunity?
“I’m considering going to the media about all of this,” I said. “The lawyer actually suggested it. She said it’d be a good way to shine a spotlight on the actions of a ‘respectable police chief,’” I snapped.
“You wouldn’t dare.” She looked at me then, and her eyes were wide and wild.
Why were her pupils so dilated?
“Oh yes, I would,” I said. “I’m going to make sure that my face and bakery name is on every single news station in the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex.”
That comment was apparently the straw that broke the camel’s back.
“I should’ve never agreed to marry your father,” she hissed. “This is too much!”
“What are you talking about?” I asked. “Why would you have to agree to marry someone?”
She slowed to a stop, and I had the irrational thought that I should bail right here in the middle of the road, rain and all. I unbuckled my seatbelt, ready.
But before I could reach for the door handle, she slammed her foot on the gas pedal. “You’re not being a good daughter!”
“You’re fucking nuts.” I ordered, “Slow down and let me out of this car!”
She didn’t listen.
In fact, she only went faster.
Blocking him isn’t enough. I need to talk to his mom to explain, in detail, what he did.
—read text between Athena and Maven
AUDEN
Quaid’s words stayed with me throughout the entire shift. In fact, the longer the shift went on, the more I started feeling the same way.
At first, it was just a little niggling sensation in the back of my brain. That little inkling went from a faraway thought to a full on, in your face, imminent possibility.
Like the calm before a Texas storm, I waited with tingling nerves for the inevitable to happen.
Like Quaid suggested, I stayed close to my cruiser, too.
When a call came in for a medical emergency at a residence downtown, I reluctantly took the mic and responded I was en route.
Only, before I could get there, the road was obstructed by two white SUVs that had managed a head-on collision where not just one, but both ran the red light.
Cursing my luck, I radioed in about the accident and got out to check the occupants of both vehicles.
The one in the newer of the two SUVs with the functioning airbags was fine, albeit a bit shocked from the air bag deploying in her face.
After leaving her, I moved to the 80s model Suburban with worry filling my veins the closer I got. It took me all of two seconds to note that the driver was dead seeing as she was halfway through the windshield.
The passenger, however, wasn’t dead.
She was alive and moving, and it took me no time at all to recognize her.
Even with blood running down her face, and a nasty cut over her forehead, I’d know that beautiful face anywhere.
Stomach bottoming out, I hightailed it around the SUV’s bashed front end to move to her, using the mic on my shoulder to call in several busses.
Luckily, the window was down, allowing me to cup Maven’s face in my hands and provide C Spine support until help was here.
“Maven,” I whispered, devastated.
“My stepmother,” she whispered. “She’s dead.”
I swallowed hard before saying, “She’s gone.” The small whimper that left her had my heart seizing in my chest. “The last thing I told her was I wanted nothing to do with her.”
My belly clenched.
“She showed up at my house and asked me to come talk to her. I came outside because I didn’t want her in my place and it started raining, so we got into her car. As soon as my butt was in her seat, she confronted me about how I was treating my dad and my brother.” Her lip quivered. “And I told her I hated both of them. I told her I was moving out of Dallas so my dad couldn’t pull any more tricks with the health department. I then told her I was going to go to the media about how Dad was targeting me. I told her I would make sure my face was on every TV outlet in the city. And she got mad. Like irate in a flash. She told me she should’ve never agreed to marry my father, and that I was more trouble than I was worth. She got mad at me because I wasn’t being a good daughter and sped away before I could get out of her car. I was telling her she was fucking nuts, and just managed to get my seatbelt on when she ran that red light.” Her breath quivered. “Auden, I think she tried to kill me.”