Total pages in book: 32
Estimated words: 29462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 147(@200wpm)___ 118(@250wpm)___ 98(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 29462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 147(@200wpm)___ 118(@250wpm)___ 98(@300wpm)
I lift my head, pressing my lips to hers in a soft kiss. We stay just like that for a long moment, lost in each other and the moment. At least until the hot water turns ice cold. It doesn't happen little by little. It happens all at once.
"Jesus Christ," I growl, rushing to turn the knobs off as she shrieks and tries to avoid the bone-chilling spray. "We're replacing the water heater, Firefly. This one doesn't last long enough."
"We've been in here for an hour, Callum."
"Exactly. That's not long enough." I drag her out of the shower, plucking a towel from the rack to wrap around her as she shivers, her eyes bright with happiness. "I need at least two hours of hot water to properly appreciate you naked and soapy."
She rolls her eyes at me, quickly rubbing the towel over herself to sop up the water. I stand with mine in my hands, enjoying the show. What? She's fucking naked and she's beautiful. I'm not that cold.
"Your phone is ringing."
"What?"
"Your phone is ringing," she says again, smirking at me as she wraps the towel around her, hiding her gorgeous body from view. It's a travesty, really.
"Shit." I quickly dry off and then jog toward the bedroom to grab it from the nightstand where I left it. Dillon's name flashes across the display, along with a slew of missed calls. Fuck. Something's wrong.
I swipe to answer, striding out of the bedroom to keep Hope from hearing whatever bad news he's about to deliver.
"What's up?"
"I need you and Hope to get down to Hope's shop," he says without preamble. "We have a situation."
"What kind of situation?"
"We found the van that tried to drive her off the road."
"Who was driving it?"
"We don't know."
"What do you mean you don't know?" I growl, pacing the hall. "Did you run the fucking tags? Who is it registered to?"
"It's a stolen vehicle, Callum." He mutters a curse under his breath. "Someone put a brick on the gas pedal and drove it through the front of her shop before dawn this morning. It's currently sitting in the middle of her store."
"Fuck."
"We need her down here." He pauses. "You need to prepare her, man. I don't know how much everything in the shop cost, but she's looking at thousands of dollars worth of damage to the building alone."
I close my eyes, rage and defeat coursing through me in tandem. This is going to break her fucking heart. No. I'm going to break her fucking heart because I'm the one who has to deliver the news. I'm going to find whoever did this and kill them slowly.
"We'll be there within the hour," I tell Dillon before hanging up on him. I stand in the hallway for a minute, trying to get my emotions under control before I walk back in there and tell Hope that everything she's worked so hard for is gone.
The worst goddamn part about it is that I still don't know who to blame. Silas Wembley? Thomas Huntington? Either is just as likely as the other. Both have motive. Both are shady as shit. I've pissed in both of their Cheerios this week.
Christ. Is that why her store was destroyed? Because I poked the bear?
The thought is sobering. I'm supposed to protect her, but I'm failing her. At every goddamn turn, I'm failing her.
"Callum?" She pokes her head out into the hallway. "Is everything okay?"
I take a breath and turn to face her. "Come here, Firefly."
The smile slides from her face. The brightness dims in her eyes. She fades right in front of me, shrinking before my eyes. "What happened?" she whispers, pacing slowly toward me. "Just tell me."
I pull her into my arms, wrapping them tightly around her. There's no real way to soften the blow. She wouldn't want me to even if I could, so I tell her plainly. "Early this morning, someone drove a van through the front of your store, Firefly. Dillon is waiting for us down there now."
She flinches in my arms, the lights winking out in her eyes. Just like that, whoever is behind this accomplishes what they've been trying to do all along. They break her.
And for that alone, I'm going to kill them.
Chapter Eleven
Hope
I walk through the destruction of my store with my arms wrapped around myself, completely numb. A construction crew installed support beams so the wrecker service could remove the truck an hour ago. Dillon reluctantly agreed to let me inside to look around. I wish I hadn't insisted. The store is in shambles. My dreams lie in shattered, twisted ruin. Somewhere among the wreckage are centuries of remedies passed down through generations.
I'm not a healer like my granny was. I don't have a green thumb like my grandpa did. All I have is the knowledge they left me and the love I poured into this place. I can't replace most of what was here. The plants stopped growing when Granny got too sick to tend to them.