Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 128260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
“Grace,” Carson called, but I ignored him and sped up, my legs weak as I practically ran to my car.
As I pulled out of the garage and waited to turn onto the street, an entourage of black limousines and SUVs with international flags made their way across the intersection and pulled to a stop in front of Trilogy. I craned my neck to watch as Carson walked out the front doors of the hotel and shook hands with a man stepping from the first limousine. I supposed foreign dignitaries stayed in Vegas all the time. I looked away and turned in the other direction, driving away as quickly as possible. Surprisingly, my hands were steady on the wheel.
_________
Carson
I was alone in the small room. I walked to the corner and stood the tiny Dixie cup upright. It had fallen over with my last throw. I moved back to my chair and sat down and aimed again.
“He shoots! He scores!” I said quietly as my dime plunked straight into the small cup.
I retrieved the dime and shot a couple more times, making each shot easily. I was bored. I stood looking at the closed door for a few seconds and finally walked over to it and turned the doorknob.
Someone was usually in here with me, but today there wasn’t anyone. They hadn’t had anyone extra to “babysit” me. I rolled my eyes. I was hardly a baby. I was eight years old. The man of the house.
I knew what my mom was doing and I didn’t like it. It made my stomach hurt to know that she was under the covers with some man, naked, while they made a movie. She called herself an actress, but I had heard other people, people who whispered behind my back, call her a whore. I knew what a whore was. I knew it meant that she screwed people for money. But the worse part was, I knew it was true, so I couldn’t defend her. I couldn’t call them liars. Every time I asked her to stop doing the job she was doing, she would yell at me and ask me how else I expected to eat.
I knew it would also mean that she had to stop taking the pills and sleeping for most of the day.
I snuck around the corner and heard the music coming from the front room. I also heard grunts and other strange noises. I knew they were sex sounds and that I should go back to the room they had told me to stay in. But for some reason, my legs kept moving forward.
I peeked my head around the corner and my eyes grew big, and I put my hand over my mouth to keep myself from yelling. My mom was in the center of a bed and there were three men around her, all naked—
I turned away, and I choked out a small sound, tears springing to my eyes.
But I wanted to save her! I had to. Those men shouldn’t be doing that to her. She was my mom. I turned and ran toward her and suddenly, those men were gone, and she was on the bed on her back and I was over her sobbing, “Mom! Mom!” She was beaten and half-dead, blood caked on her face. She looked up at me through cracked, swollen lids and…smiled. The sweetest smile I had ever seen. As she smiled, her face transformed, her features growing younger, becoming someone else. I could see that she was pretty, even despite the blood and the swelling. “Ara,” I breathed out. It was Ara. I had another chance to save her.This time I would.
I shot up in bed, panting. My phone was ringing.
“Hello,” I said, my voice both groggy and slightly panicked.
“Hey, Carson,” Leland said. “Josh’s bail was just set. Two million.”
I closed my eyes for a beat. Shit. “Can we cover it?”
“We? No. Trilogy? Yes. I’m on my way to the bank now. I just wanted to let you know.”
“Okay, keep me posted.”
“Will do.”
I hung up and collapsed back on my pillow, glancing at the clock quickly. I had slept in after working late the night before and then tossing and turning most of the night once I finally fell into bed. I stared up at the ceiling. That fucking dream. I’d had it before but not for a couple months now. I wondered if it was because Grace was back in my life—sort of.
Grace.
Josh was being taken care of, and so I took a minute to think about Grace as my heartrate returned to normal.
Had I messed up with her? Maybe. But I was having a hard time feeling too sorry about it because seeing her come again was fucking fantastic, even if it might have also worked to scare her off.