Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 73716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
She gotten dressed up. Acted like she was going out on a date. Had gone on a date. Except she'd ended it early, and I hadn't realized it.
Then she'd gone home, wrote a note to Dante and me, and had overdosed on a bottle of pills that she’d stolen from my medicine cabinet.
Then she'd cleaned up after herself. Started a load of laundry, and then had gone to her bed.
When I'd arrived at her place an hour later, it was to find the note on the counter.
After I read the first few lines, I immediately started running toward her bedroom. I'd arrived in time to watch her take a few labored breaths in between telling me her wishes for Dante before she died in my arms.
“I’d offer to help you, but it looks like you have your ducks in a row.” Audrey broke into my thoughts. “If you ever need anything, I’m here.”
I squeezed her hand, grateful that she’d changed the subject on me, and returned to the bed to retrieve my weapon.
Once I had it on my person, I covered it up with my t-shirt. Once my shirt was in place, I looked over at Audrey still standing at the sightings wall and studied her.
“You ready?”
She nodded.
“Well then, let’s go,” I rumbled.
“You’re sure?” She was looking at me like I was going to self-destruct. “I don’t want to go that bad.”
***
She started to type, and again she nodded her head.
“The only cabins I have, mid-level and mid ship, are the ones with queen sized beds. However, if you choose, we can separate them into twins. You’ll just need to make sure that you specify that on the instructions tab on the site right there.”
The travel agent pointed to where the tab was on my own computer, and I nodded.
“Okay,” I grunted, turning to the woman that’d been particularly quiet throughout the entire appointment. “Is that okay with you?”
Audrey shrugged. “I can close the bathroom door. As for sharing the bed, that’s fine with me as well. We’re both adults.”
I looked at her, studying her sincerity, and then turned back to the woman.
“All right,” I leaned back in my chair. “That’s how it’s going to be.”
The travel agent’s smile was almost giddy as she signed us up, and I idly wondered how much commission she was getting off of the sale. I’d met one cop going in, and one cop had come in sometime during our meeting with her.
She was going to make a killing on just law enforcement.
“Alrighty, then.” She grinned. “Let’s get this booked.”
Ten minutes later, we were walking out of the door with a pamphlet full of shore excursions in our hands, and a hunger that was gnawing at our insides.
Chapter 6
Oh, Fuck.
-Words whispered by every single person at least once throughout the day.
Tobias
There was something wrong with me.
I couldn’t get my head on straight.
Everything I did came with a small voice in my head saying, ‘What’s Audrey doing? What will Audrey think about this arrest that you just made when you tell her about it later on? Do you think Audrey is doing anything right now that you can’t stop by and see her?’
I couldn’t seem to shut off the thoughts that centered around the one woman that I knew should be protected from me.
Yet, here I was, driving over to her place when I should be going to my own home and staying the fuck away from her.
When I pulled up outside Ghost’s house, I didn’t stop myself from going to the door.
I knew Ghost was gone.
I knew that he was out of town working on a case.
I knew that his wife and daughters were gone, too.
Meaning there was only one person in that house, and it was Audrey.
I didn’t have any reason to believe that she’d want to come with me.
In fact, she’d probably tell me not just no, but hell no.
But I had to ask her anyway.
Knocking on the door, I waited patiently for her to answer.
It took her exactly two minutes to do it. How did I know that? Because I timed it.
Jesus Christ, was I fucking lost.
The door opened, and a tired looking Audrey answered the door.
“Oh, hey!” she said, instantly perking up when she saw me. “Where are we going?”
I looked down at her.
She was wearing a pair of short, blue jean shorts, white ankle socks, and a pair of tennis shoes. The tank top she had on said ‘Butter Baby’ where it was stretched tightly across her ample breasts. My mind started running rapidly through all the things that I wanted to do to her that weren’t considered polite in general society.
Things that she wasn’t ready for, and I wasn’t allowed to give her, according to Ghost.
“How do you know we’re going anywhere?” I asked curiously.
The fact that she wanted to go somewhere with me, even though she didn’t know where that was, was enough to make me to feel fucking giddy inside.