Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 70516 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70516 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
And I made a decision.
“I’ll tell you everything,” I said. “But first, I need to get a hold of a friend who can get me an untraceable airline ticket.”
“It needs to be untraceable?” she asked softly.
I nodded.
“Then maybe she doesn’t need to be seen getting onto a domestic flight at all. Maybe she needs to fly private,” Eddy suggested.
I nodded and got on the phone.
“What’s up?” Apollo asked.
I gave him the rundown.
“Your sister is a mess, but according to all of her search history and everything that I could find, getting custody of your daughter isn’t even on her radar.” He paused. “She’s pretty involved in an online gaming group, though. She’s racking up the debt.”
“That should be impossible seeing as Stanton left her his entire estate,” I pointed out.
“One would think,” he said. “But I haven’t done a deep dive into her finances. I will now, though.”
“Thanks,” I said.
“I’ll get the flight information to you as soon as possible,” he said. “And we’ll get Eddy’s sister on it, too.”
Apollo hung up, but just as I started to explain, the door was pushed open and Eddy’s parents arrived, killing any and all possibility of a discussion.
“Oh, my baby,” Minnie Wheeler, Eddy’s mother, said. “We came as soon as we heard.”
Fat fuckin’ lies.
They both damn well knew.
Everyone and their brother knew.
You didn’t have a bear attack in your town and not hear about it immediately.
You especially didn’t have a woman survive a bear attack and it not make even bigger news.
I’d been dodging news people all week wanting to talk to the ‘miracle woman that survived a bear attack.’
Hell, even a few social media influencers had shown up.
It’d made getting to and from the hospital damn near impossible to do and not get seen.
Luckily, it was still cold as fuck outside and you had to bundle up or freeze to death.
The only thing they ever saw of me was some of my eyes as I left and arrived.
And since they weren’t all that interested in seeing me, they usually paid me no attention.
That didn’t mean that I hadn’t gone out of my way to ensure that they didn’t follow me home or to work.
“It’s okay,” Eddy lied, wincing slightly when she moved. “You’re only allowed one visitor at a time, and Weaver is usually always with me.”
“I’ve heard of your relationship with the electrician,” Barton murmured, taking me in. “Audrey hasn’t stopped sharing all that she knows about him. I guess it makes sense that you called him over to our house to fix everything. Though, I fail to see why I would have to pay a man that you’re seeing.”
“Business is business,” I said. “I don’t work for free.”
“You don’t help your girlfriend’s parents out?” Barton asked.
Not when they’re pedophiles…
“We weren’t sharing we were dating. It would’ve looked suspicious that I allowed you not to pay, wouldn’t it?” I asked.
A nurse came in carrying a small pink tub with soap and washcloths. “Are you ready for that bath, Eddy?”
“Dying for it,” Eddy said, widening her eyes at me.
I moved the bag closer and got the cat put away, doing it while barely waking him up.
It was a damn miracle.
“We’ll go,” Barton said. “Will you make it to church this Sunday?”
Would she make it…
I looked at the man with surprise. “She just got attacked by a bear. I think if she’s out of the hospital, she can skip this once.”
The man looked like I’d just told him the sky wasn’t blue.
“Don’t you think she should be thanking God, though, for sparing her life?”
I shrugged. “She can do that from her living room.”
Barton didn’t like hearing those words, I could tell.
“Let’s get out of here.” Minnie placed a soothing hand on her husband’s arm. “We can discuss this when she’s alone.”
I’d call the club as soon as I was out of this fuckin’ place and make sure that she really was never alone. No way would I let those two crazy fucks anywhere with her alone if I had a say in the matter.
My mind whirled with all kinds of worry. Both for Boston and Eddy.
Two people I had yet to get off my mind since I’d met them.
“All right, let’s get you in the shower,” the nurse said the moment the door closed behind her parents. “Mr. Strong, Dark and Beautiful, could you help me get her up and into the shower?”
“Oh, he’s about to leave.” Eddy looked embarrassed.
“I have a few minutes,” I lied.
I didn’t have any minutes.
I, in fact, probably should’ve left about fifteen minutes ago to make it back home and to work on time.
Luckily, my boss didn’t really give a fuck when we got there as long as we got all of our work done for the day.
“Excellent, because this is going to hurt.” The nurse looked apologetic. “Oh, I guess I should introduce myself, too. We were in rounds when you got here. I’m your nurse, Sage. I’m a travel nurse, so I know no one. I’ve decided we should become great friends.”