Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 77236 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77236 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
“Did you see anything?” the other cop asked. “Anyone?” he added.
My belly tensed as the memory of the three men flashed across my eyes.
They’d been so crisp in my mind a moment or two ago. Now they were blurring around the edges, making me question my own memory.
Had he even done the gun thing to me?
Had I imagined that?
What was wrong with me?
“Miss?” the cop prompted.
“Three men were getting in the elevator,” I said.
“Can you describe these men?”
“I… not really. One was bald. And he had black and red tattoos. Big. He was big.”
“Big as in tall? Muscular? Heavyset?”
“Tall,” I clarified. That much I knew. He seemed to take up half of the elevator. “And… both?” I said, brows scrunching. “He had big arms, but he was… thicker,” I said, trying to make sense of my memories.
“And the other men?” he prompted.
“I… I didn’t get a good look at them. Not as tall. And they both had hair. Dark brown. That’s… that’s all.”
“Have you ever seen these men before?” the kinder, more fatherly cop, asked.
“No. No,” I said more firmly, sure of that fact, at least.
Yes, there were a lot of guys in and out of Kylo’s apartment, but I would have remembered the bald guy.
There were more questions, more pressing that made me second-guess every answer I’d already given them.
Finally, I was allowed to go back across the hallway.
I felt oddly numb until I walked into my apartment, until I dropped my ass down onto the couch.
Then it was like all the adrenaline drained at once.
My entire body started to shake. And the tears that I’d managed to hold in while talking to the police started all over again when I looked down at my hands and legs, seeing myself covered in Kylo’s blood.
Kylo.
They’d been quick to get him on the stretcher, and I’d heard cursing and groaning at the movement. But by the time they strapped him in and started to roll him away, his eyes had been closed.
But his chest had been rising and falling. Right?
But he’d been so pale. Ashen, really.
Could someone survive that much blood loss?
Even if they could give him a transfusion, he’d need surgery. To get out the bullets. To repair any internal damage.
I didn’t even know how many of those bullets had lodged in his body. At least two. But it could have been more. I hadn’t even thought to try to lift up his shirt to see.
I wasn’t sure I could have stomached that.
But my brain seemed fully capable of conjuring up images that may or may not have been close to reality.
He had to have been so scared.
When he’d been bound to the chair.
When men had been tearing apart his home.
As they likely threatened him.
Then as they pulled out a gun, threatened to, and then shot him.
Then he’d been there… lying on his side, feeling his own blood drain out of him. Believing no one would come to save him. Knowing that he was all alone in the world.
My heart crumbled in my chest at the way he’d said he had no one. At how he’d tried to assuage my guilt for not saving him while he was actively bleeding out.
He had to live.
I mean I barely knew the guy.
But I was invested in him now.
And there was a chance he wasn’t going to make it.
Who would plan his funeral? Who would come?
If he truly had no family, what happened? Did the city just… bury him? Did they cremate him? Was Kylo religious? Did he have final wishes?
No.
No, damnit.
I wasn’t going to think that way.
He was going to live.
And as soon as I could pull myself together and clean up, I was going to go down to the hospital and check on him.
If he was okay… I was going to… I don’t know. Show him he wasn’t alone.
Because, God, I knew how alone felt.
I don’t think I’d even been really aware of how alone I felt until recently.
Yes, technically, I had a mom. But I was nothing but a disappointment to her. I even had a grandmother, but she was eighty-something and struggling with end-stage dementia.
But I had no one to call and vent to. To share my highs and lows with.
I spent the last two birthdays and Christmases all alone.
I guess Kylo had as well.
I wasn’t going to let him feel all alone while he recovered.
I could get him… flowers. Or one of those edible baskets. Not fruit. He didn’t strike me as a fruit guy. But they did all kinds now. Muffins. Donuts. I mean… who didn’t like donuts?
I was still sniffling as I decided on picking those up.
And it was right then that I heard it.
A knock.
My heart soared up into my throat, cutting off my air supply as my gaze shot in that direction.
I had been too out of it to slide my locks.