Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 76022 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76022 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Her presence made it slightly more tolerable to walk through the darkened house and climb into bed.
I couldn’t stop jumping at shadows on the walls, envisioning forms stepping out of the dark corners.
Fears, I reminded myself, based in reality.
Panic gripped my system, making the air thick and my chest tight.
I clutched the flashlight to my chest as Saul’s voice rang in my ear, reminding me to breathe and telling me to ground myself in sensation.
The chirps of crickets outside the window. The scent of wet paint in the hallway. Trix’s soft fur against my leg.
And in that way, I kept Saul right by my side all night. Until the first rays of light streaked the sky, lighting up the shadows and finally letting me drift off to sleep.
But he was with me there in my dreams as well.
CHAPTER SIX
Coach
My gaze slipped from watching the taillights of Este’s car as the prison’s alarm rang out through the quiet night.
In all the years I’d been inside, I’d only ever heard that siren twice: once, during an all-out rival gang brawl in the chow hall, and once when someone tried to escape.
“Is that the prison alarm?” Colter asked, materializing out of nowhere to stand near me, his gaze trained on the place that had been our home for years.
“Yeah.”
“Cons taking advantage of the partial outage?” he asked, but there was a skeptical edge to his voice. A blackout would have meant a full lockdown. Save for people beating the shit out of each other in their cells, there was no way for anything to get that out of control.
“Maybe.”
The sirens droned on and on.
Then, not long after, the dogs.
“Oh, shit,” Colter said.
I wasn’t sure Colter had been inside with me when that last guy attempted to escape. But they’d found him in under twenty minutes. They hadn’t even needed to bring out the dogs.
Down in town, I watched several headlights turn on in the police station parking lot.
You knew it wasn’t good when the local PD was getting involved.
“Dunno how to feel about this,” Colter said. “On the one hand, as someone who was chained in there like some kind of animal, I want to cheer the fuck on.”
“On the other, you were locked inside there with actual animals who shouldn’t be free to roam the streets.”
“Exactly,” Colter agreed.
Unbidden, my mind traveled across the town to some unknown house where Este was stuck in the dark she was so terrified of.
And there was possibly some sick bastard on the loose.
She had her dog, I reminded myself. One who hated men. Who was hopefully the type to bite first, ask questions later.
I should have sent her home with a gun along with the flashlight. Or, better yet, insisted she stay. I could have gone with her to her place to get her dog.
I didn’t want to scare her off, though.
I could already sense her awkwardness as we said goodbye at her car. Not regret necessarily, but something akin to uncertainty.
Maybe I shouldn’t have let it go as far as it did. But when a woman was moaning my name and begging for what she wanted, it felt wrong to deny her.
In retrospect, she might have been vulnerable after her panic attack. She may not have been thinking as straight as usual.
Oh, well.
What was done was done.
Even if she didn’t happen by at some point, this was a small town; I was bound to bump into her sometime. If not, I could always head to the pool hall to see her.
“Should we be texting Slash about it?” Colter asked.
“I’ll let him know. Get the news spreading. Not a lot of places for someone to hide in town. Don’t want to take a chance of him showing up at one of our doors.”
“Should we drive the girls home?”
“They’re probably all here for the night. Go on back in and enjoy the party. I will keep an eye on the grounds.”
I needed some time away from the conversation and music to think anyway.
“If you’re sure.”
“I am. Maybe don’t get too wasted, though. Just in case.”
To that, he gave me a nod before heading back inside.
I reached for my phone, dialing my boss’s number and listening to the ring.
“This something to do with the blackout?” he answered.
“Yeah. And no. You hear the sirens?”
“There’ve been a lot of sirens.”
“Yeah. But I’m talking about the prison sirens.”
In the background, I could hear Slash moving through the house. Then, likely, opening a window because I could hear the sirens from his end of the phone.
“Dunno if I’ve ever heard those go off before.”
“Once. When someone attempted to escape.”
“Now I see why you’re calling.”
“The dogs are out too. And someone mobilized the SVPD.”
“So someone’s out out. I’ll see what Rook can dig up. If he can dig anything up. Dunno if their computer systems are up and running during an outage.”