Total pages in book: 218
Estimated words: 209489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1047(@200wpm)___ 838(@250wpm)___ 698(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 209489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1047(@200wpm)___ 838(@250wpm)___ 698(@300wpm)
Then I got in too. I reached over to turn off the lamp and sighed as I rolled onto my back. The mattress was at least a thousand times better than the floor, that was for sure.
Reaching across the bed, my fingers found his forearm and I patted it. “If you’re too scared to sleep by yourself, it’s okay. I’m not one to judge. I’m scared to sleep by myself too. I kept thinking I was going to get dragged under the bed by an evil spirit in the middle of the night. Just so you know though, the only thing I’ll protect you from are flying roaches. We lived in Texas for a while, and I’ve killed a ton of them. If the Bogeyman comes in, you’re on your own.”
Part of me expected him to laugh, but instead, I felt a brush at the top of my hand. It only lasted about a second, but the touch sent a shot straight up through my forearm and into my chest and… other places. “I bet you would,” he said, his voice soft. “But I can do the protecting from now on, Cookie Monster. Bogeyman or not.”
We would see about that, I thought as I drifted off to sleep.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-THREE
It was over breakfast the next day, after waking up with my fingers inches from Alex’s forearm and trying to sneak out of bed without waking him and failing at it, that he looked at me while holding a piece of bacon and asked, “What do you need?”
I was in the middle of eating my own slice when I started choking and had to take a second before I swallowed it down.
What do you need? What did he mean, what did I need? A lot of things. And maybe it said enough about where my mind was that I would first think about sex.
Could you imagine?
Just last night I’d wanted to punch him in the throat, but now… well, now I still wanted to do it. Not as hard though. It wasn’t like it would actually hurt him.
A snicker from the stove where Selene was busy frying up breakfast sausages had me glancing toward her. The other woman had tongs in her hand as she stood at an angle, facing the table. She’d already been in the kitchen by the time I’d made it downstairs.
“What do you mean? With what?” I asked him as innocently as I could.
He kind of got squinty. “I meant with your life. What do you need? You said you were waiting for your cell phone.”
Oh, that. I’d thought about it the day before when I’d hid in the bedroom after Agatha’s visit. I had made a vague plan for the future that involved a lot of illegal things I would need to atone for in the future.
But now, I had somewhere to be. A place I hoped could buy me some much-needed time to get my life sorted. I finished eating the rest of my bacon, ignoring the too-watchful purple eyes across the table while I thought about it. Then I said, “Well, I need to figure out what to do about the ‘fire’ that burned the house down. I don’t know if I’m going to be in trouble with the police since I kind of went missing.”
“I’ve been thinking about that.” It was Selene who spoke up.
We both looked at her.
“Get Legal in on it. They’ll know what to do,” she said.
Legal?
Even Alex nodded like that was a good idea.
“What does that mean?”
“The family,” Selene answered, “has a legal department. There’s a whole team of lawyers that sort out that kind of thing.”
Their family had a legal department? How was that possible? Because of the Trinity?
“She’s right. They would be the easiest way to deal with most of your issues. They have contacts in a lot of places.”
I’d bet they fucking did. “Okay…,” I told him, wondering just… so many things. Were they run like a corporation? Did they have presidents and prime ministers on speed dial that owed them favors?
Alex ate some eggs. “We’ll go talk to them today and see what they think about your situation. What else?”
Okayyy. “I need a laptop,” I told him. “I have to try to get back to work.”
His features went very still. “Do you need anything else?”
“That’s all I can think of for now,” I told him, hopeful. I thought about my words for a moment. “I still can’t get into my checking account until I get my phone, but I promise I can pay you back once I get it.”
He made a dismissive sound as he finished off the rest of his breakfast like we hadn’t gotten into an argument over money a few days ago. “When you’re ready, we’ll leave.”
Here I’d thought he’d let me borrow his credit card and buy everything online, but to actually leave the house?