Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69807 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69807 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
The cleaning lady’s face was terrified.
“It’s not enough that you stole our credit, and our ability to have a simple bank account, but now you’re sweet talking yourself into our apartments and stealing our money? You’re such a fucking bitch!” Aella reared back and let a punch loose on the cleaning lady. “Give it back!”
Five
I want to take a man that’s been through a lot and show him it can get worse.
—Aella’s secret thoughts
AELLA
I could say that I handled everything with a great attitude, but that would be a lie.
I’d tracked my money to this middle of nowhere place—how there could be a middle of nowhere but still be in Dallas proper, I didn’t know—and had come to a decision.
I would not let my mom steal this money from me.
She’d already taken too much from me, and I wouldn’t allow her to take one more thing.
I looked up at the razor wire and smiled.
I’d snuck in and out of so many places that razor wire was a breeze.
Doing it in Crocs was new, and I’d only torn a small tear into my scrubs pocket.
I’d started walking, keeping to the shadows, my target my money.
I’d just spied my mom’s car parked off to the side in the shadows as well when two strong arms wrapped around my body.
They were unrelenting and unbreakable, which had me fighting for my life.
I’d just twisted enough to get an arm loose when the man holding me spoke. “Chill.”
That voice.
The instantaneous reaction out of my body upon hearing a familiar voice had me stilling.
“Chevy?”
“What are you doing here?” He sounded really angry.
Which, I guess he had a right to be, seeing as I’d likely just broken onto his property and he’d caught me.
There was a hitch in my breath before I said, “Um…”
At my hesitation, he tossed me over his shoulder like I weighed nothing but air.
There was a long moment there where I tried to tell myself that this wasn’t the best thing ever, and I had to force myself to sound indignant when I said, “Chevy! Let me down!”
He didn’t let me down.
In fact, his hand moved up to cover my ass and I knew damn well and good he wanted to spank it.
The thrill that went through me as he did that had my heartbeat skyrocketing, which wasn’t a good thing when you were already upside down.
His strides were long and angry, and I did have to admit it wasn’t the most comfortable thing to be bounced on his shoulder straight into the diaphragm.
He carried me directly inside, then placed me on a stool in the middle of some very large men before he backed up.
Yep, wasn’t good.
Wasn’t good at all.
I stalled for time by fixing my hair, making it to where it didn’t hang all in my face so I could see everything in case I needed to run.
Not that I expected to get very far.
All five men surrounding me looked very spry, albeit large and intimidating.
Maybe I shouldn’t try to run at all…
I licked my lips and said, “Uhhh…”
“Explain,” Chevy, one that I realized I didn’t know at all, growled.
“I, uh…” I started but stopped.
What exactly did I say?
That my mom stole my rent money and I tracked it here?
That sounded crazy.
“Now,” the big man in the middle said, leaving no room for argument.
I studied him for a long second.
They all were wearing leather vests that I knew to be called cuts thanks to Sons of Anarchy, but only he was wearing one that said President over his very well-worked-out left pectoral.
“I, um, I’m…” I stuttered.
I was going to talk, I swear, but then my mind sort of blanked when I saw the woman that was coming out of the hallway behind them.
My mother.
She was wearing AirPods—things that I couldn’t afford to own myself because my mom stole our money so much—and dancing as she pushed a cart out of the dark hallway.
She was also, I noted, wearing my shoes!
I’d just bought them last month because I’d found them at a resale shop for fifteen dollars.
They were brand-new, never worn, and I’d been so excited for that steal.
I hadn’t realized that she’d taken them but now that I saw she had them, the anger and the pain all culminated into a rage so complete that I didn’t think.
I just acted.
I didn’t notice the men look with me, giving me the opening that I needed.
I didn’t notice how my mother saw me and stopped, frozen in shock to see me there.
All I saw was the fucking fact that my mother was wearing my brand-new shoes, wearing AirPods I couldn’t afford, and standing in a place she didn’t deserve to be.
The lying sack of shit.
I launched myself off the stool, forced my way between two very large men, and hit her like a linebacker.