Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 67120 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 336(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 224(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67120 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 336(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 224(@300wpm)
My lips tipped up into a swift smile that quickly fell off my face when I saw my father’s vehicle rolling down the length of the road heading toward my place.
Just as I was about to say something, I found my grandmother’s hand in my gut as she pushed me roughly into my house and practically slammed the door closed.
She peeked out the blinds moments later. “Did they see us?”
I looked out the blinds above her head and said, “They don’t seem to have. What’s going on?”
“Call that girl of yours and tell her that she has to hide,” Grans said. “They’re crazy!”
I didn’t know what she was talking about, but I pulled out my phone anyway and made the call.
She didn’t answer, so I left a voicemail.
“All right, now that’s done, tell me what’s going on with my parents?” I ordered.
CHAPTER 18
Can we start the weekend over again? I wasn’t ready.
-Sierra’s Secret thoughts
SIERRA
Gabriel,
I’m hoping and praying that this letter finds you well. And that maybe this’ll be the one that you actually respond to.
I’m so scared for you. I’m hoping that, just maybe, you lost my address and that maybe the only reason that you’re not talking is because you don’t want to talk to me anymore. Not because the worst has happened and you’re actually dead.
Today I’ve finished my first semester of nursing school.
Today, I got rip-roaring drunk, went to sleep, and then had a dream that… never mind. I’m not going there. I’m not going to tell you what my dream was about.
Write me back.
Please, write me back.
Sierra
• • •
“What the fucking fuck?” I asked as I came face to face with Malachi’s parents.
In my house.
On my fucking brand new couch, kicked up, as if they didn’t have a care in the world.
“Get out of my house, right now,” I ordered shortly. “And where is my dog?”
“We let him outside,” his mother said. “He was barking, and we thought it would be best for him to wait out there. Please, come in and get comfortable, we have a few things we would like to talk to you about.”
I gritted my teeth and pulled my phone from my purse.
I didn’t wait for them to tell me why they were there.
Instead, I dialed the cops… or would have had my phone not been snatched out of my hand by Malachi’s father before I’d even dialed the first number.
“Give that back!” I growled, pissed off as all hell now.
“I suggest you give us a moment to talk,” Mr. Stokes, Malachi’s father, ordered.
I was glad that Malachi no longer went by Stokes. Fuck them and the horse they rode in on.
They didn’t deserve a beautiful son like the one that they got.
“I’m here for one reason and one reason only. Money. You get us money, and we’ll leave,” he said swiftly.
I snorted and crossed my arms over my chest, refusing to give their dumbness an answer.
“I’m willing to get you a cut for a quarter of what we get if you vacate our house,” he said. “For all intents and purposes, this is our place, and we want it back until our home is fixed in Florida. Now, we’re leaving. We’re staying at a hotel just outside of town. I left my phone number on your pen pad on the fridge. Please feel free to use it when you make the right decision.”
With that, he gestured to his wife who was drinking my goddamn tea, and pointed to the door. “Let’s go.”
He set my phone down on the entrance table and closed the door behind them, leaving me in a state of shock.
Did they just bribe me? Did they honestly think that I would let this go?
Because it was goddamn highly doubtful that they realized just how much I hated them for what they’d done to Malachi over the years.
A dog barking had my heart clenching in worry as I ran to the front door and peered out.
There I found Axe outside, barking at Mr. Stokes as he got into his car.
Instead of closing the door to his car, though, he slammed it open, trying to get Axe away from him. But all he ended up doing was causing his car door to make an alarming creak and pop that sounded like he’d broken the damn thing off.
Axe jumped back, continued to bark, right out of reach of the stupid man.
All the while, Malachi’s mother fanned herself as if she didn’t have a care in the world about what she’d just done or what was happening now.
Giving up, Malachi’s father closed his car door and started to roar away.
Axe followed.
Unfortunately, when they decided to let my dog out, they’d done so into the front. Not the back.
Meaning, that Axe followed their asshole selves all the way down the driveway and refused to listen to me as I screamed his name to come back.