Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 137310 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 687(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 458(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137310 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 687(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 458(@300wpm)
Oh fuck.
Heat came at him from Eight.
Blistering heat.
Fuck.
“Multiple what?” Diana asked.
“Don’t answer that,” Hugger gritted at Mace, let Diana go, but took her hand and pulled her away from the huddle.
“Harlan,” she complained as they went.
When he got her far enough away, he turned her toward him, bent so they were face to face, and caught her with both hands on either side of her neck.
“You don’t want to know this, Diana.”
“I do, Harlan.”
“Baby, step back from this. Let us finish talking. Then we’ll go back to your crib and you’re on Suzette, like normal. And we’ll stay on target and get deeper into it.”
Her head jerked.
Fuck.
Her face saturated with pain.
Fuck.
She was figuring it out.
“Diana, step back,” he ordered.
“Multiples,” she whispered.
He moved his hands to her jaw and got nose to nose with her. “Step back.”
“Multiple sources of DNA,” she pushed out. “It wasn’t just Babić. She was gang-raped.”
“Baby,” he whispered.
She pulled out of his hold, whirled, took two angry steps away, then stopped so fast, her body swayed.
She whirled back to him and announced, “I want to hurt somebody.”
“Somebody’s gonna hurt. Just not you gonna do it. Come here.”
“I can’t. I can’t. I…” She shook her head. “Oh my God, she’s no more than seventeen and she’s been gang-raped.”
He didn’t repeat his command.
He went to her and pulled her into his arms, one around her head so her cheek was tucked to his chest, the other around her, so she was too.
They stood that way awhile, the sun beating down on them, her heat beating into him.
Hugger was working up a sweat just standing there, but he didn’t move, and this wasn’t only because she felt damn good, it was because it felt better, giving her something steady to hold on to.
Eventually, he sensed her pulling her shit together.
Only then did he loosen his hold.
But he didn’t let her go.
“You good?” he asked.
She tipped her head back to catch his eyes and nodded.
“You strong?” he pushed.
“I…I don’t know what you mean, but I hope so.”
He examined her face, at the same time he remembered her meticulously cleaning an ugly-ass painting with a Q-tip. Remembered her being in the middle of an emotional trauma, but not letting the opportunity of a cookie slide by. Remembered her pointing at her head and snapping, “Blowout.” Remembered her delight at Suzette coloring in a book. Remembered her cackling with her ex-stepmom on the couch for two hours, while her sorta-stepdad, once removed made a play at bonding with the men who were looking after a woman he had no blood or real connection to, but he considered her his girl. Remembered her trusting him to help her get through a difficult text convo with her father.
And he remembered something hazy and distant.
It was hazy and distant because he made it that way. It was hazy and distant because he buried it along with every other good thing that happened in his life, outside the honor of looking after his mother.
He remembered his mom coming home from a client to a house he’d cleaned. He remembered her smile. The bright in her eyes.
And her saying, “One day, my beautiful boy, you’re gonna make a woman really happy.”
And he made a risky decision.
“You wanna be in this? Really in this?”
“I don’t know what you mean about that either, but I think so.”
“You gotta know if you do. And I gotta know I can trust you. So think, Di. You in, or are you gonna look after Suzette and talk her into getting safe and chatting with the Feds while the rest doesn’t touch you?”
“You’re kinda scaring me, Hugger,” she said quietly.
“Good,” he returned.
“It’s hard to make a decision about something I don’t know what I’m deciding at the same time being kinda entirely freaked out.”
“That’s the trust part.”
“I—”
“Diana, in or out.”
“I don’t—”
He caught her by the jaw and got nose to nose with her again.
“In or out, baby.”
She stared into his eyes.
And whispered, “In.”
He knew that would be her answer.
And now for taking the risk.
“Resurrection MC is known by two other names.”
“Okay,” she said slowly.
“They’re known as the Angels of Vengeance.”
Her eyes got big.
“And the Angels of Death.”
Her lips parted.
“And both just got activated.”
“Oh my God,” she breathed.
“So, you got no part in that, but you got a part in this. You and Pete. You get Suzette talking. About herself, about what went down, about getting safe and giving up what she knows, and about why she picked you.”
“Why she picked me?”
“She got away and didn’t hole up. She went to the hospital. That is not a woman who’s given up. That’s a woman who wanted help. But she doesn’t trust the cops. She trusts you. We gotta know why she doesn’t trust cops. So we gotta know why she picked you.”
His hands moved as her head did in a nod.