Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 67468 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67468 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
I was just about to click out of the app—annoyed that once again I’d fallen for the swish of a tree branch—when I noticed something dark huddled into a ball against the side of the house at the garage view.
Was that a…
I got up, as if standing would help me see the grainy video better, and switched to the porch view again. The garage view gave me a slight view of the porch, right at the corner. But the view of the porch, from what I could tell, had nothing on it. I was missing right under the camera, however.
Shit.
I went back to the notifications, hoping that whatever it was had registered being put there.
And what I saw had my heart hammering a million miles an hour.
The first recorded video that I got was of the night view of the front yard. Nothing there. But then there she was, running up the length of the porch, in nothing but a pair of short boxer briefs and a big T-shirt. A soaking wet T-shirt that left very little to the imagination.
She slammed her hand on the door, then slid it down out of view of the camera.
“Hurry, Cass. Hurry,” I vaguely heard her say.
I was out the door before I could even register that I couldn’t fuckin’ drive.
I was way too many beers in to be driving safely.
“What’s wrong?”
Wake.
He’d followed me out.
“I need a ride,” I said. “But not in your car. You have dog hair in it.”
“I have a clean car,” I heard Kobe say. “And I’m only one beer in. What’s wrong?”
Kobe had driven his work truck to the bar to meet us after work, and since he’d been late in coming, he hadn’t had time to catch up to us.
“Something’s wrong with Alice,” I answered. “She’s at my mom’s place in a T-shirt, and she’s soaking wet.”
Kobe took his keys out, unlocked his door, then gestured to me to get in.
I did, followed by the rest of the crew.
They were hunkered down in the back seat, and even Bain had taken up residence in the bed of the truck.
“Let’s go,” I urged.
Something told me that I wouldn’t like what I was about to be faced with.
When we got there, I unlocked the gate, pushed it open, then got back into the truck since I knew Kobe could get me there faster than my legs could.
When we arrived, at first, I didn’t see a damn thing on the porch.
Then movement to my right shifted in the shadows, and then I had two arms full of crying, shaking, and wet woman. My fight or flight response had been seconds from kicking in, but thankfully, the instant she was in my arms, my body seemed to know it was Alice.
Her smell permeated my senses, and the knowledge that she was okay was like an instant shock to my system.
“What the fuck happened?” I found myself asking.
“A-attacked.” She keened against my throat. “A-at T-the M-marina.”
Her stuttering between hiccuping sobs was literally in the process of breaking my heart.
Literally, I could feel the ache inside my chest with each sob that left her throat.
“You ran all the way from The Marina?” I asked, the alarm in my voice evident. “Come on, let’s go inside. I need to see you.”
There was a low chorus of murmurs from the men at my back, but none of them interrupted me or my walk inside.
I inputted the code I hadn’t put in for years, then walked into a house that held every single sign of home, minus the people that made it one.
I shoved every single memory out of my head and walked her to the kitchen, where I sat her on the counter. For the longest of seconds, she didn’t let go, clinging to me and sobbing into my skin.
I could feel her tears soaking the collar of my shirt and sliding down the skin of my chest.
“Baby,” I urged. “Let me see your face.”
She still hesitated, and I wrapped her up in another hug so fierce that she paused in her sobbing because she couldn’t draw a breath.
“Please, let me look at you. We need to see if there’s anything wrong,” I ordered, putting a bit of harshness in my voice to reiterate how serious I was.
She shivered against me, clung for just a few more seconds, and then blew out a breath before letting me go. One limb at a time.
When all the limbs finally dropped, there was a murmur of voices behind me. Since I was close, and her head was dropped down practically to the top of her sternum as her chest continued to shake with sobs, I didn’t at first see the seriousness of her injuries.
Then she looked up.
The moment I got my first good look at her face, I felt something in my stomach flip and turn sour.