Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 68892 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68892 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
“Good,” Lynn said, dropping heavily onto the chair that he’d pulled out from the kitchen table.
Laric and Sin did the same, while Wyett and I stayed standing.
Once they were all sitting, Wyett reached into her bag and pulled out a small penlight.
She walked right up to Laric and said, “Can I touch you?”
Laric grinned. “Any way you want to.”
Wyett snorted and leaned forward, pulling down one eyelid.
“Let me see your eyes,” Wyett said, shining the light into Laric’s eyes.
Wyett lifted Laric’s eyelid and quickly shined the penlight into his eyes.
He sneezed.
“Sorry,” Laric murmured. “I can’t help it.”
We all chuckled. Well, most of us, anyway. Lynn was now looking like he was in a lot of pain.
“That’s ACHOO syndrome.” Wyett sniggered as she did the other eye, causing him to sneeze all over again. “That’s usually an inherited trait from your parents. Did your dad or mom do that?”
Laric shrugged. “Don’t know. I was adopted.”
There was a long silence, and then Wyett moved to the next man, Sin.
Sin wasn’t very happy to be getting a physical either after being blindsided by a freakin’ truck plowing into them, but he sat still and allowed Wyett to examine him anyway.
The last person to get checked out was Lynn. Lynn, who looked like he was about to get up and run straight out of the building.
What the hell?
“Ummm, I’m okay.” Lynn started to stand up.
Bruno’s hand on his shoulder had him sitting right back down before he’d even moved his ass a couple of inches off the wooden chair.
“Just let her look in your fucking eyes,” Bruno grumbled toward Lynn. “You’re being a little bitch.”
Lynn’s jaw tightened.
“Just let me look. Y’all could’ve suffered some serious head injuries, and I need to make sure that you didn’t,” Wyett urged.
Lynn’s eyes met mine as if he was almost terrified of what was about to happen.
“I…” Lynn started to say, but Wyett was like a slippery little devil. Before Lynn could protest more than a single word, she was on top of the scariest man ever and shining a light in his eyes.
Lynn promptly sneezed in her face.
Wyett backed off immediately, looking shocked. Not because she’d been sneezed on, but because of the sneeze that’d just come out of Lynn’s mouth upon seeing the light.
“I fuckin’ knew it!” Laric boomed as he studied Lynn. “You’re my father, aren’t you?”
There were two people in the entire room that didn’t look surprised by the news.
One, Wyett.
Two, Lynn.
He looked resigned.
“What…” I couldn’t finish the sentence.
Now that the answer was in my face, I couldn’t help but notice the other similarities that I hadn’t already noted.
I mean, I’d done the comparisons.
I’d thought how much they looked alike.
What I hadn’t done was put the two together and gotten that from him.
I guess I could’ve asked but… I would’ve thought that he’d want to tell me.
At least, I would’ve thought that he would want me to know.
But… why?
“Why?” Laric asked, mirroring my thoughts.
Lynn sighed and pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes.
“Do you want the condensed version, or the really long version?” Lynn asked.
He looked and sounded tortured.
“Everything,” Laric said, crossing his arms over his chest. “And why the hell you’re just now telling me after I’ve been around for a fuckin’ year.”
Lynn sighed and recounted the awful story of him being a fifteen-year-old father and not knowing it. “I tried to find you for half my life before I finally was successful,” he admitted. “I checked up on you every day for a year. Made sure that you had a good life.”
“I didn’t,” Laric grumbled, voice gruff.
“I know that now,” he admitted. “Only found out after you went to prison. I kept up with you. Every six months or so I’d come around, make sure you were okay, then back off. The thing was, you’re really fuckin’ good at putting on a show. Slipping that fake mask into place just like I am. I should’ve looked past the surface, but I convinced myself that you were better off without me.”
My stomach hurt for my man.
Like seriously, I was nauseous at the thought of Lynn having to make that decision at such a young age. And to think that Laric was better off without him.
“I got you out of prison the moment that I heard you were in there,” Lynn sounded shattered. “And then I did what I should’ve done, which was have you at my side, even if you being there was with the knowledge that you’d never know who I was. Because you had some serious fuckin’ hate for your adopted father, and I was the one who left you there.”
Laric sighed and scrubbed his face with his hands. “I don’t even know what to say to this right now. You should’ve told me.”
“And if I had. If I’d told you, would you have stayed? Would you have come out of that hellhole?” I asked.