Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 77205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
“I know,” I agreed. “I’m a fuck,” I added, cradling her carefully as I slowly got to my feet. “Got a bit of a walk to my car,” I told her. “Then I think the hospital is only fifteen or twenty minutes away,” I added, seeing Storm trotting beside us, happy to have the assistance he’d worked so tirelessly to get for his owner.
“I can’t go to the hospital,” she insisted, body going tense.
“Hate to break it to you, but you gotta. Lot of things I would tell you to shrug off. Issues with your ribs isn’t one of the things you wanna fuck with. If they’re broken, they could nick a rib and then you’d suffocate to death from the inside out. Sound fun?” I asked, glancing down to find her looking up at me, a mix of bone-deep terror and just the slightest hint of amusement in those pretty gray eyes.
“Besides,” I said when she didn’t reply. “I won’t let whoever did this come back and finish the job.”
Her gaze slid away at that.
“If he knows I’m still…”
Alive.
If he knew she was still alive, he’d come back and finish the job.
Judging from the fingerprint bruises on her throat, he damn near accomplished his goal already.
A fuck who would do this shit to a woman, yeah, they might be batshit enough to come back and finish the job.
Not if I was watching for him, though.
“Like I said, I won’t let him,” I said, letting it drop at that.
If she had doubts, she didn’t vocalize them.
More likely, though, she was trying to focus on not crying out as the walk kept jostling her body, making her suck in her breath and tense up over and over.
“Almost there,” I told her, seeing my car in the distance.
“Storm,” she said, voice sounding choked.
Like she was about to cry.
“Got a backseat,” I said as I pulled the passenger door open, then carefully set her inside before yanking open the back door. “Come on,” I said to the puppy, who looked confused, but because his person was in the car, he carefully stepped inside as well.
“He can’t stay in the car,” she said as I slid into the driver’s seat.
“I’ll figure it out,” I assured her. “You’re gonna go down for testing. I’ll find a dog daycare or some shit like that.”
The city was teeming with those places. I was dubious that I would find one out here in the sticks, though. Why would you need a doggy daycare out this way? Throw in a dog door and a fenced yard, and the dogs could keep themselves entertained all day if they needed to.
It didn’t matter.
There would be a dog walker. A dog sitter. Someone. I found if you tossed enough money at someone, they were all too happy to do whatever you needed them to do. Especially if it was as easy as tossing some food at the dog, and keeping it safe until I could figure out another arrangement.
Judging by the looks of her, I didn’t think the hospital was going to need to keep her, unless she had some sort of concussion to deal with. They’d check her ribs, wrap her in elastic bandages, cast her wrist, then likely send her on her way.
She couldn’t go back to her cabin, obviously. But there were other options.
I was getting ahead of myself, though.
“How did you find me?” she asked, and I wondered if I was imagining the hint of suspicion in her voice.
I couldn’t blame her, I guess.
“Was driving down the road. Heard Storm barking like a fucking maniac. Then, saw him running across the street.” It wasn’t a lie. And wasn’t the truth either. But she seemed ready to accept it regardless. “I figured something was up, so I followed him.”
“He’s a good dog,” she said, trying to look back at him, but her face contorted in pain. “I don’t even know your name,” she said after a moment.
“Silvano,” I told her, even though my entire existence up here was supposed to be under one of my aliases.
“Millie,” she said, wincing hard as the tires hit a pothole that had the whole car jolting hard. “Will I have to talk to the police?” she asked, glancing over at me.
“Dunno. Maybe,” I said, even if I did know and she almost certainly would have to talk to them. People in healthcare were mandatory reporters. She’d clearly been attacked. Maybe she could have avoided it, lied about falling down a cliff or something, if it weren’t for the strangulation bruises on her neck. “Why?” I added.
A normal person would ask that. They would want to speak to the police. They would want to file a report, have the bad guys found.
I had to play the part of a normal person. Even if I understood all too well why other sorts of people wouldn’t want the cops called.