Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 140965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 705(@200wpm)___ 564(@250wpm)___ 470(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 705(@200wpm)___ 564(@250wpm)___ 470(@300wpm)
“That surprises me. I don’t know why, but it does.”
“I went out there with few expectations. I honestly didn’t care where I was. My unit was there, my fellow GhostWalkers, and we protect one another. Wyatt’s grandmother was there, and she was becoming known to our enemies. Then Wyatt found Pepper and his three little girls. That gave us all another purpose to stay there. The girls are still young enough to bite when they get upset, and their bites are lethal. The swamp is a good place for them right now. It allows them freedom and keeps others safe.”
“Your voice changes when you talk about the place. I can tell you really love it.”
“I do. I didn’t think I could love anything or even anyone, but Nonny has this way about her. She made me realize that there were good people in the world. She made me see that we were a family of sorts—the GhostWalkers in my unit—and that we had an extended family in the other GhostWalker units. I liked that. I liked belonging to something important like that. I also found I liked knowing I had the ability to protect Nonny, the three little ones and Pepper.”
“What made you think there weren’t good people in the world, Draden?”
He almost missed that carefully worded question because she spoke so softly and used the same tone she’d been using before. He felt his gut clench. “That’s for another time, sweetheart.” He rebuffed her gently, not wanting her to think he wasn’t willing to share with her. After all, who was she going to tell? Even if she judged him harshly, he’d be dead in a few days anyway. “When we’re lying in bed in the dark.”
She didn’t look hurt. She gave him a faint smile. “My mysterious man is always so intriguing. I think I might like your swamp.”
“We’re all sticking close. We all have money. Whitney’s daughter has shared a fortune with us, but Wyatt is loaded, and Trap is ridiculously loaded. Apparently, Gino is as well. Who knew?” He shrugged and sent her a small grin. “I’m sitting pretty as well.”
“I take it that means all of you have enough money to purchase the land and make it defensible.”
He laughed. Actually laughed. His woman was practical in some way others weren’t. She didn’t say build a house. Or furnish it with the best. It was all about defense.
“I found this really nice acreage just to the south of Trap and Cayenne. I liked it because it gave me privacy but allowed me to get to the fortress we’re all setting up at his place in a very short period of time.” He could run it in minutes and the trees, dripping with moss, provided him with good cover.
“Did you ever consider you might have a partner to share your home?”
“Not until I met you. Well, technically, I hadn’t actually met you. I leapt over you when I was running for the water. You were lying on that little raised knoll, but in the depression. You looked up at me and I remember thinking I wasn’t going to make it to the river because I was going to have a heart attack instead.”
She shifted in her chair, pushed the empty dinner plate aside and leaned into her hand as she put her elbow on the table. Her large, dark eyes never left his face. “I knew you saw me.”
“I didn’t know you were there until I jumped over you to keep from stepping on you. You had a pair of binoculars in your hands, but you didn’t move. You didn’t flinch, not even to protect yourself. You kept your hands down. You just watched me with those eyes of yours and for a second, I felt like I was drowning. I knew then it was you.”
“That’s the most beautiful thing anyone’s ever said to me. I like that you knew.”
He stood up to gather the dishes and take them to the basin-type sink. He liked that she didn’t argue with him about his knowing. She just accepted it. He wasn’t even going to bring up Whitney and his inevitable pairing. Or the fact that he’d considered killing her right then.
“When I woke up and realized that you had given me mouth-to-mouth, I wanted to shake you. And yell at the top of my lungs how unfair life was. You know, a child’s reaction.”
She cleared the rest of the table while he washed the dishes. “I had the same childish reaction when you told me you were infected. At last I’d found someone I was truly interested in, and you were telling me you were going to die. That sucked.”
“I’ve been thinking about that.” Draden didn’t want to think about her leaving, but he was desperate for her to have a chance to live. He had to get her to agree to leave. He knew the others would get her to a hospital and do everything they could to make certain she lived. “If you were at a hospital, there’s a chance they could use your blood to develop a vaccine or a therapy to treat the virus. Joe could pick you up tomorrow and take you to a hospital.” He risked a look at her.