Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69577 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69577 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
“I’ll stay with her,” I heard my father’s angry voice rise above the others. “Cody’s more important. Go find her. We need your skills.”
My stomach sank at my father’s words.
“Cody is not more important than the woman that’ll be my wife soon,” Creed snarled toward my dad. “And if you say one more thing like that, you’ll get the fuck out of my house.”
“It was my house first,” Dad snapped back. “And Cody’s out in the cold right now. Birdee’s fine. She’ll live for a couple hours while we’re all out looking.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, which drew the eye of several men in the room.
Some were ones that I knew. Others were ones that looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t quite place.
I knew for sure the scary looking one was Odin. He’d been the one to take Creed’s sister to the airport.
Speaking of Creed’s sister, she came barreling into the house with snow clinging to her hair and a slight huff to her breathing.
“Thank God, I made it!” Bernice frowned as she looked around. “What’s going on?”
Before anyone could answer her, Bernice’s eyes surveyed the room. When they landed on me, she squealed and started hurrying toward me.
Odin caught her around the waist before she could make it to me. “Careful, Little Bit. She’s hurt.”
Bernice frowned at Odin until he let her go, then turned that frown on me. “What’d he do to you?”
I smiled. “It wasn’t your brother that hurt me. In fact, it was a fluke event. But you’re just in time to sit with me so your brother doesn’t worry about me dying. He needs to lead a search and rescue operation.”
“Anyone I know?” she asked, then pressed into me before giving me a very tiny side hug that felt nothing more than a soft kiss of air.
“My stepsister,” I whispered.
“Do we like this stepsister?” Bernice asked quietly.
Not quietly enough, though, for my father not to hear.
“Shut the fuck up about her if you don’t know her,” Dad snarled.
“Whoa.” Bernice held up her hands.
“Get out.”
Dad swung his head toward Creed.
“I warned you,” Creed said at my dad’s incredulous look. “You don’t speak to my sister like that, either.”
Vito snorted.
“I’m not fucking kidding,” Creed snapped. “Get out, or I won’t step foot out of this house. Cody can die in the goddamn snow for all I care.”
Dad snatched his coat off the back of a chair and slammed out of the house, the chandelier above the entryway rattling with his exit.
“Temper, temper,” Bernice mused.
“You’re not helping, Bermean.”
“Hey!” Bernice said. “Don’t call me that!”
“Well, if you wouldn’t act like the name…”
“Harrumph,” she grumbled.
I caught her on the shirt sleeve. “I’m going to get dressed, then I’ll tell you everything that happened.”
Bernice’s eyes lit up. “Deal.”
I was in the process of putting my underwear on one-handed when Creed entered the bedroom, using his body to block me from the outside.
“Need help?” he asked as he saw me struggling.
“I can put on underwear,” I admitted. “But whoever packed for me packed my laciest ones, and they’re hard to get on when I have two hands, let alone one.”
He snorted and dropped down to his haunches, helping me step into my underwear.
He fished out a pair of sweats from my bag and helped me get those on, too.
For the shirt, he grabbed one of his soft hoodies and threw it over my head before delicately looping my arm into the sleeve.
I did the other one myself, then looked up at Creed before saying, “Go find her.”
He sighed. “Your dad is turning into the biggest prick in the world.”
“I’ve noticed that myself,” I admitted. “But it’s okay. I’m used to it. Go find her. Hopefully before she dies of hypothermia.”
He grumbled something under his breath, then pressed a short kiss to my lips before backing up toward the door. “Everyone’s headed out but Major. He’s going to be in his truck outside. The tin roof blocks almost all signal, so he needs to be near a working radio in case one of us finds her.”
“Are you leaving from here?”
He nodded. “Taking the snowmobile and seeing what I can find on my own. The others are taking the trailhead on foot.”
“Okay,” I said. “Be careful and stay warm.”
He winked at me. “Nothing strenuous, Birdee.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” I teased.
He left, leaving the door open as he went.
When I got to the living room, it was only Bernice and me.
“Tell me everything,” she said as soon as she saw me.
So I caught her up on it all, starting with when I left her at the hotel weeks ago.
Twenty-Six
Due to not wanting to, I will not. Thanks.
—Creed’s secret thoughts
Creed
“…Over.”
I pulled up the mic and said, “Can you repeat that?”
“No sign of her to the right of the trail,” Odin repeated. “Climbed up the entire fuckin’ mountain.”