Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76381 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76381 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Turning back, I saw the girl who, up close, looked even fucking younger than I thought. Maybe the effect was due to how wide and innocent her eyes looked right then.
“Give me your phone,” I demanded.
She didn’t even hesitate as the car peeled away from us, holding out her hand and giving it to me.
She was terrified. The hand shook as I took the phone.
Maybe I should have adopted a kinder demeanor to ease her nerves. But, fuck, she’d nearly been taken out of a bar by guys too old for her to have them do whatever the fuck they wanted with her.
She should be scared.
I scrolled to her emergency contacts and found Mom then hit dial before bringing it to my ear.
“Daph, is everything alright?” the sluggish female voice answered, sounding like maybe I’d woken her up.
“Daph is at a bar and almost got taken out of the bar by two men way too old for her,” I said, figuring she’d panic at the sound of my voice, and wanting to give her the facts as quickly as possible.
“What bar?” she asked, and I heard shit hitting the ground as she jumped to her feet and stumbled around.
“Redemption.”
There was the shortest of pauses. Then, “Seriously?” she asked, sounding more exasperated than upset.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “I’m standing outside with her. Will wait here for you,” I said before ending the call before turning back to the kid. “What’s your friend’s Mom’s number?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” she said, voice a little shaky.
“Figure it out,” I said, handing her back her phone.
“She’s eighteen,” Daph declared.
“Like you’re twenty-one?” I asked, barely managing not to roll my eyes at her.
“No. She’s really eighteen. She lives alone and everything.”
She was still too young for a bar. But if she was at least legal, her fraternization with other adults wasn’t any of my business. I would just tell Toll when I went inside to boot her ass out.
“The fuck kind of a so-called friend would let you leave the bar with two guys too old for you?” I asked.
“I can make my own decisions,” she declared, lifting her chin.
“Yeah? Your mom agree with that?” I asked.
“She treats me like a baby,” Daph insisted, crossing her arms.
“You are a fucking baby,” I said, watching her eyes spark.
“Am not,” she said, tilting her head to the side, eyes going half-mast.
Christ.
Was she trying to… flirt with me? I was old enough to be her fucking father.
“Save that shit for boys your own age,” I said. “Better yet, save it ‘till you’re thirty. Boys ain’t shit,” I added.
“You’re a boy,” she said, rolling her eyes at me.
I figured this wasn’t the time to explain the difference between a boy and a man when she clearly already had inappropriate feelings toward guys older than her.
“Yeah. And I ain’t shit either,” I agreed as a dark blue SUV came barreling into the parking lot. “Your mom, I’m assuming,” I said as the SUV whipped into a parking space a few feet away, the engine not even cutting before the driver’s door flew open.
“Daphne Elizabeth Waters what the fuc—“ her mother started before she even turned around. Then, getting a look at her daughter, changed tack. “What are you wearing?” she asked.
I didn’t even know what she was looking at because, fuck.
This was her mom?
I mean, yeah, the genetic transfer was strong.
They both had black hair, pale skin, and big hazel eyes.
But the years had refined the mom’s features a bit, chiseling out her jaw and giving her eyes a sultry look.
She was about average height with a compact, but curvy body that she had dressed in casual skinny jeans and an alt-rock concert tee.
I snapped back as the kid tried to insist her mother was overreacting.
“You know what? I don’t want to hear it,” her mother cut her off. “Get your ass in the car. We will talk about it, at length, on the way home,” she said, making Daphne’s face harden. But she went and got in the car.
The mom sucked in a steadying breath at the sound of the passenger door slamming hard. Tilting her head up, she closed her eyes for a three count before exhaling and looking at me.
“Thank you,” she said, the emotion thick, likely knowing exactly what had almost happened to her kid. “She was supposed to be at her friend’s house.”
“Maybe having an eighteen-year-old best friend isn’t the best idea then,” I said, shrugging as said friend walked out of the bar with a group of guys, making me nod my chin at her.
“That’s… another conversation I need to have, I guess,” she said, looking at the young woman like she’d never seen her before.
I glanced hard at her gorgeous face again, not understanding how Daphne could be her kid.
“You’re her mom?” I asked, brows scrunched.