Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 64910 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 325(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64910 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 325(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
It wasn’t long. It wasn’t short, either.
And there was zero tongue.
But the way she melted into me made my heart fuckin’ soar.
“And even if you don’t need me, feel free to call.”
• • •
“What do you mean, you’re moving?” Haggard looked stunned.
Sophia blinked, turning to look from me to Haggard and back, before getting up and quietly walking out of the room.
Shine, Tide, Price and my father were also in the room.
“I’m moving to Florida,” I repeated my earlier statement. “I’m gonna go there where Dory has a job interview. We’re going to try to sort out our shit.”
It was my mother who said, “Maybe that’s for the best.”
I raised a brow at her in question.
But it was Tide’s. “I don’t know why you would think him leaving us would be a good thing. In fact, all I can think of are bad things. Such as, isn’t this the place that she was attacked, and nothing was done?”
I’d been thinking about that, too.
“Yes,” I admitted. “It was. But I’m already on the horn with a few people there that are looking into it. The man that lives up the street from where she was renting, Wake Westfield, has been giving me updates when they come in. Which, I’ll admit, aren’t very often, or very good. It looks like the sheriff isn’t really doing anything about it.”
“Well then I don’t see how that’s a good idea,” Tide argued. “I mean, what if it happened again?”
He wasn’t saying anything that I wasn’t thinking.
“It won’t, because I won’t allow it,” I told him bluntly. “I’ll stay on her. She’s not stupid, either. She won’t go putting herself into danger when she doesn’t have to.”
Tide sighed. “And I’m sure, you being there, it’ll be easier to look into. That’s one of your reasons, right?”
“The least one,” I agreed. “Her safety is my first priority. But she doesn’t want to be here. And I can’t make her be here if that’s the case. Not to mention, she had this job interview. She was excited about it, and I want her to live out her dream.”
“We can’t argue with you,” Shine said. “Because then it’ll make us assholes. But how do you expect us to repair anything if you won’t keep her here?”
“You can’t repair anything until I repair what I’ve broken first,” I told them honestly. “So, we’re leaving, and we don’t know when we’ll be back.”
“That sounds pretty permanent,” Dad said. “Are you sure?”
Are you sure it’s worth it? She was worth it?
Hell yes, she was worth it. And him asking that sent a ball of fiery anger through my veins.
“Was Mom worth it?” I asked.
Dad stiffened.
“I think it’s a great idea,” Cannel finally chimed in. “I can’t say that I’ve been the best sister-in-law through the years…” She trailed off. “But I want to fix that. And if I have to come to Florida to do it, then I will.”
I smiled at my sister.
God, I loved her.
I was so glad that she was better, too.
Her being sex-trafficked right out of the supermarket parking lot near the Air Force base in Florida had changed a lot of lives that day, the most of all hers. She’d had a lot of hurdles to get over lately, but she was scaling each better and better as the days passed.
“So when are you leaving?” Shine asked, looking the most sullen of the bunch. “What about that party for her welcoming home you were talking about?”
“We’ll have to postpone it a few months.” I shrugged. “We leave tomorrow.”
CHAPTER 16
Motherfuckers think they can have their cake and eat it, too. Well, wrong bakery, bitch.
-Dory to Bram
BRAM
We were in Florida exactly twenty-three hours later.
“What do you think?” I asked as I pulled into the driveway of the house that we would be making our home for the next few months.
I looked over to find Dory’s mouth all but falling open.
“It’s… gorgeous!” she exclaimed. “Holy cow! You weren’t kidding about being on the water! Look at this!”
I looked at where she was directing and grinned. “Yeah, the water literally comes up to the back porch. It’s going to be extremely nice not to have to mow weekly.”
There was no grass at all anywhere around the house. It was all landscaped rock, which I assumed was because of the water.
Not that I really knew shit about tides.
I was born in East Texas. There wasn’t a fuckin’ tide to be seen anywhere near us.
“We need a boat,” she murmured. “Then again, I don’t know if I can handle a boat. I can barely handle the rocking of the car.”
Truer shit had never been said.
Her hyperemesis diagnosis from Dr. Proctor had all but taken care of with her excess intake of only sweets and the occasional healthy meal with the ingestion of nausea meds. We were handling it much better than we were last week at this time.