Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 154379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 772(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 772(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
“Mommy got owie?” He pointed at the cut on her head. His eyes that were the same color as hers were wide with innocent worry.
“It’s just a tiny bump. It doesn’t even hurt.”
Doubted that claim was actually legit. About an inch of flesh was busted open, and a steady stream of blood oozed from it.
“I’m going to grab the first aid kit and get an ambulance out here to check everyone out. Pretty sure your car isn’t going anywhere.”
Her attention flashed up to me when I said it.
A different kind of panic lit her gorgeous features. Could tell she wanted to argue, but then she was looking back at her son, torn by something I couldn’t make out.
“Okay,” she finally agreed, and I ducked out of the car and ran for my truck. I threw open the back door and dug out the kit from where I kept it stashed, then I nabbed my phone from the console and thumbed into the screen at the same time as I went running back for the car.
Fuck.
No service.
Guts twisting, I kept moving before I popped my head back through the rear passenger door. “There’s no service. We’re pretty deep in the woods and the storm is likely adding to it. I can probably get it about five miles up the road. Think we need to move you all into my truck. It’s warm and I can get you into town quickly.”
Didn’t love the idea of moving the kid, or any of them for that matter.
My only solace was he seemed unharmed.
“I thought you said you could get service five minutes up the road?”
I let go of a heavy exhale. “I said probably, but I’m not a hundred percent. Besides, I’m not sure how long it would take an ambulance to get out here in this storm. Might be best for me to drive you the whole way.”
A war went down in the middle of the woman.
This fiery hot protection that I could feel brimming from her flesh as she stared me down like she could see every sin I’d ever committed.
Thank fuck she couldn’t.
Otherwise, she’d have them all running out into the woods, figuring surviving the storm would be a whole lot safer than surviving me.
“Not going to hurt you. None of you. My name’s Theo. Theo Mallin.” The promise grated up my throat.
Disbelief shook her head. “And I’m just supposed to take your word for it?”
The older woman in the front seat shifted around and peered into the back. “We don’t have a lot of other options, Pipes, unless you want to sit out here and freeze to death, and that doesn’t sound like a real fun way to go to me.”
Good. At least she was in my corner. Seeing things rationally.
I turned back to the woman who was looking at me with so much distrust it was a wonder I didn’t turn to ash.
But apparently, it was too fuckin’ cold for fires because that flame burning from her was petering out.
She breathed out a frustrated sigh. “Fine. But know I will claw you to pieces if you even look at any of us wrong.”
Couldn’t stop the rough chuckle that rolled up my throat while something in my chest was clutching in a fist.
This woman was ferocious.
“Noted, Pipes.”
She sent me a scowl.
I ignored how much I liked it, and I angled my head toward my truck. “Come on. Let’s get you out of this storm.”
TWO
PIPER
What the hell did I think I was doing? Putting my trust in this stranger?
But the storm continued to howl and thrash and batter, and my car…
I gulped around the jagged rock at the base of my throat as I looked out at where the tail end was sticking up in the air from the ditch.
Sickness curdled my stomach.
I couldn’t believe I’d been so careless.
That I’d allowed this to happen.
The car was probably toast, and that car was our lifeline.
Our salvation.
The one thing that kept us safe.
Carrying us from one destination to the next.
Now, we were stuck. Subject to the will of a stranger who was currently running around my car grabbing our belongings and loading them into the bed of his truck.
Theo Mallin.
My spirit tried to cling onto his name like knowing it would make this okay.
Like giving in and allowing him to give us a ride was better than keeping a mountain between me and my family and anyone else.
He’d already ducked into the driver’s seat, turned off the ignition, and flipped on the hazards, the man on a full-scale mission as he prepared my car to be abandoned.
Of course, that was all after he insisted on being the one to remove Finn’s car seat and strap it into the backseat of his truck.
A tremor rolled through me as the vents pumped hot air into the cab of the massive pickup. With one hand, I pressed the compress to the cut near my hairline. With the other, I gripped the truck’s door handle like through it I might be able to read the owner’s mind.