Total pages in book: 28
Estimated words: 26820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 134(@200wpm)___ 107(@250wpm)___ 89(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 134(@200wpm)___ 107(@250wpm)___ 89(@300wpm)
The floorboard whines and creaks above my head as Leo paces his bedroom floor. It’s going to be a long night. Punching the sofa cushion, I put my head down and close my eyes for a second.
“Why did you do it!” Mom screams. Blood coats her hands. Her face distorts. She’s coming closer.
“Why did you put her out there?” Her voice is now a whisper. “Why?”
I jolt awake, my hands thrown up in defense. A shadow lingers over me. Startled, I scurry backward.
“Mom?” I croak, my voice still strained from sleep.
“Why did you do it?” the figure asks. I rub my eyes. Nope, still fucking there. Jumping to my feet, I stumble away from the thin, straggly-haired woman with my mother’s face.
“I don’t want to see her,” she cries.
“Leo,” I call up the stairs, my skin crawling. “Leo!” I bark.
Movement sounds, and he appears at the top of the stairs, stark naked, holding a gun. “What’s wrong?”
“Mom’s here.” A chill blows in from the wide-open front door, carrying leaves in with it.
Thudding down the stairs, Leo frowns, shaking his head at me. “Did you say Mom?” Following my stare, he slaps the gun against my chest, dropping it and going over to her.
“Mom, how the hell did you get out of there?” He sits her down and pulls a blanket from the back of a chair, wrapping it around his waist.
“Meadow Fields?” I scratch the back of my neck pinching there to make sure I’m not asleep.
“I’ve been detoxing her here.”
Leo confesses and my brain explodes. “What the fuck, Leo?”
“No. I’m not going back there, I see her.” Her words gain in pitch, and she pushes Leo away. We haven’t seen each other in almost two years. By the looks of her, you’d think it’s been twenty. Her hair is gray. Stress lines cut into her features. There’s a tooth missing in the front row of her mouth. She’s a mess.
“She needs real doctors. Look at her.” I scoff.
“It’s cold down there.” The woman is delusional.
“They have doctors there, Leo. You can’t fucking help her here. Where the hell have you been keeping her?”
“Upstairs, she tries to get out.” My gaze cuts to the front door. She must have seen me and changed her plan.
“I’m not going back,” she mumbles. Her eyes finding mine, she jabs a thin finger toward me. “Why did you do it?”
Every fucking time she sees me, that’s all she asks. “Because he was a piece of shit,” I snarl.
She flinches, reaching out for Leo, and he goes to her, a softness in his gaze I’ll never understand. “Come on, Mom. I’ll take you back upstairs.”
“No Leo. She needs real care. They will come and get her.” There’s no room for argument in my tone.
I watch him wrestle with the idea, his eyes flitting between us. “Fine. But I’ll take her there.”
“You going to put some clothes on first?”
“Are you going to watch her while I do?”
For fuck’s sake. “Just be quick.”
“Don’t leave me with him, Leo. He’ll kill me too.”
“I’m not the fucking monster here, woman,” I growl, wanting to shake sense into her.
“No he won’t. Just sit down while I get some clothes on.”
After she takes a seat, he marches over to me. “She’s fragile. Don’t be a dick. I’ll be two minutes.” Snatching the gun from me, he bounds up the stairs two at a time.
Once he’s out of sight, she darts her gaze around the place, twisting her lips. “I don’t like it here. It’s all wrong.”
“No one asked you to come back here,” I grunt, going to the kitchen and pouring a glass of water from the faucet. A shadow darts toward the front door in my peripheral. “Fuck.” I chase her down the steps, almost slipping in mud when she starts across the small piece of greenery straight into the street and onto the road.
Slowing my pace, she stops and stands there glaring at me, I place my hand on my hips. “Get out of the road.”
“Why did you do it, Zane?” She rubs at her arms, her collarbone protruding, her eyes sunken in. Why couldn’t she have loved us more than she did him. Look what loving him got her. Headlights beam coming over the hill. It would take nothing to let her die right now. Let the metal plough into her erasing the bitter hag. Let her rot in hell with dad if she misses him that much. My heart rate soars, pounding in my ears as the lights get closer. A squeal from her lips shatters the night, and I jolt into action
Racing forward, I sweep her out of the way just as the horn blares and the car swerves. Breathing erratically, she wiggles from my hold. “Don’t touch me.”
I grit my teeth, jabbing a finger right back at her. “I killed him because if I hadn’t, he would have killed you. Worse—he could have killed Leo. Someone had to protect us—and it should have been you.”