Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 74227 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74227 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
I didn’t have the possibility to raid the expired bin. I had to leave. Immediately.
I shivered.
“Would two hundred leave you with enough to make your bills?”
Something on my face must’ve conveyed that it wouldn’t because he sighed. “I’m going to charge you a hundred dollars. You’ll serve community service for the rest. Ten hours at a place of your choice. Deal?”
I hated lying to him.
“Yes,” I breathed. “Deal.”
It wasn’t a deal.
I wouldn’t even be here in twenty-four hours.
I smiled and lied, anyway.
I’d do anything not to return to Sal again.
And, as an idea formed in my head, I realized anything included stealing from the man I was starting to fall in love with.
***
“Come on, jailbird. I’m ready to take you home and fuck you.”
I gave him a small smile, but I knew it didn’t reach my eyes.
“What’s wrong?”
I swallowed, wondering if I should tell him everything and decided that he’d done a lot for me.
But that only reinforced the knowledge that I wouldn’t be able to do this to him.
Baylor was a good guy. He’d done a lot for me over the short time that I’d known him. He’d fed me, made me laugh, saved me from the crazy vegan who tried to get me fired.
That was why I made the decision to leave. To take off and not say another word to him about it.
“I want to go home and shower,” I said. “I’m…I will talk to you tomorrow.”
I started walking in the opposite direction of where he’d started to his truck.
When I felt his hand curl around my elbow, I flinched.
“Please?”
He looked at me, read my eyes, knew that pushing me might break me at that point.
And he proved to be a smart motherfucker, because he let my hand drop, and backed away.
“I’ll see you in the morning.”
I shook my head. “I have to work at the grocery store in the morning.”
Lie.
Well, not totally, anyway.
I did have to work but I wouldn’t be there. Hopefully I’d be halfway across the country at that point.
“Afternoon, then.”
I shook my head again. “I work at the Taco Shop until nine.”
He growled. “Then when you get off.”
I swallowed thickly and then nodded my head.
His eyes narrowed, but he waved me away without another word.
And, not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I started to half run/half walk down the road.
Luckily the house where I now lived was fairly centralized in the town because it took me less than twenty-five minutes to get home.
But it wouldn’t have mattered.
I knew I’d get home safely.
Baylor shadowed me the entire way.
Chapter 16
I am not responsible for what my face does when you talk.
-things not to say to your alpha badass
Lark
I tiptoed to the door and pulled it open, thankful that he left it unlocked.
The neighborhood was quiet, late and safe meant that Baylor never locked the door. Which was good for me because I knew where he kept a spare key to the truck.
Which I retrieved moments later and used it to start the truck up.
Putting it into reverse, I immediately started to wince at the sound.
The tow truck made a beeping bleep that indicated it was backing up, and I cursed as it only seemed to get louder.
Which happened to be why I reversed a whole lot faster into the road than I would’ve normally, and hit a trash can.
I groaned and put it into drive, carefully adjusting my mirrors as I started to accelerate down the road.
I’d made it two blocks, turning onto the street that led to the exit from the neighborhood, when I saw the figure in the road.
I slammed on my brakes and came face-to-face with a very upset Baylor.
He was illuminated by the headlights, and what I could see wasn’t very happy.
In fact, it was safe to say that he was enraged.
Stalking around the truck, he came to the driver’s side and yanked it open.
“Move.”
I started to scramble out of the truck completely, but he blocked me with his body.
“Move as in scoot the fuck over. Not get out,” he ordered, gritting his teeth.
I did as he asked, and probably should’ve gone straight out the other side.
However, his next words halted me in my tracks.
“You so much as think about throwing that door open and running for it, you’ll regret it.”
I swallowed the saliva that was quickly gathering in my mouth and tossed him a wary look.
He got into the truck and slammed the door shut.
He was sweating…badly.
He’d obviously been on the final leg of a run, because his shirt was tucked into his waistband, and there was so much sweat dripping off of him that it was collecting in his shorts. Making them look more of a dark gray rather than the light gray I’d seen him wearing earlier in the night.
“You have two choices.”
I knew I wouldn’t want to do either of them.