Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 115964 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 580(@200wpm)___ 464(@250wpm)___ 387(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115964 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 580(@200wpm)___ 464(@250wpm)___ 387(@300wpm)
“Boss,” he greeted with a small upward chin lift.
Raize’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Give us a second.”
“Okay.”
That was the exchange, but I looked back, noting Jake’s tension. His shoulders were rigid. When I turned back, Raize had been watching me. “You want to fill me in?”
I opened my mouth, but then Abram was coming our way.
I shut it, just as he got to us, looking toward the women’s restroom.
“Hey,” he breezed, then did a slight twitch as he realized who I was. His eyebrows dipped in. “You look different.”
“Different hair.”
“Ah.” His eyes lit up with comprehension. “No offense, but I liked the blonde.”
I grinned. “Me, too. I’m going back.”
Raize gave me a soft grin, before losing it. He asked Abram, “How is she?”
Abram gave him a wary and tired look, a very tired look. “It was bad for her at times.”
“What do you mean?”
Abram was eyeing the women’s door. “Let’s talk later, yeah? Get to safety and then start debriefing all this shit because bruh, it’s a lot of shit we gotta digest.”
Raize grunted, then nodded to me. “Check on her, but don’t approach.”
“Got it.”
He went his way and I went mine, and when I went in, I almost walked into the wall.
The girl standing at the mirror, staring at herself, was Raize’s twin. Or the female version of him.
She was smaller, which I already knew. Her hair was dark and it hung limply down to the middle of her back, but her eyes were dead. Her cheekbones were gaunt. She had beautiful brown eyes, the same full lips as her brother, but her face was a little more rounded than Raize. His was hard with a firm and square jawline, but with the eyes, the mouth, the cheekbones, she was Raize’s blood.
The guys would figure it out the second they saw her. All hell would break loose after.
I suppressed a shiver, not wanting to get ahead of myself with those fireworks.
I forced myself to keep going, into a stall and sat, but I didn’t pee. I didn’t know why I was waiting, but she hadn’t moved when I went past her. She choked out a sob before the water turned on, but when she turned it off, she didn’t let out another sound. She washed her hands, grabbed a towel, and slipped outside. All quiet-like, or as quiet as she could be.
I thought back.
I had stopped and stared at her. She hadn’t noticed. Those eyes weren’t even seeing herself, I didn’t think.
Was the dead staring thing a family trait?
I was thinking it wasn’t.
55
Ash
No fireworks happened after I came out of the restroom.
Cavers, Gus, and Jake were in our truck.
Abram and Raize’s sister were in theirs.
Raize was waiting for me, studying both trucks. His attention moved to me as I came to his side and he touched under my chin. “You want to explain Jake’s attitude toward me?”
I sucked in my breath. “I thought you’d wait.”
His eyes barely flickered. “What's up?”
“I don’t know. You said ‘we’ when you were referencing that you got your sister out and Jake asked me who was with you.”
“Did you tell him?”
I shook my head. “He knows I know who was with you, but nothing else.”
“You told him about Abram?”
“No, just that I thought I knew who the person was that was with you. That’s it, literally. I didn’t know, you know, but Abram made sense.”
He started to step back, but I caught his shirt, holding him in place.
My chest tightened. I didn’t like what I was about to do, but… Raize had to know.
“He hasn’t cut off his woman.”
Raize tensed. “What?”
“He called her, told her the lie about his mother, but he’s been talking about her.”
God.
What was I doing?
Had I just signed her death warrant? Because Raize would not let it stand, especially now with his sister in the mix.
“And he’s pissed, thinking I’ve been lying to him?”
“Well. Yeah.”
Raize cursed under his breath, then sighed. “We’ll deal with this later. Go with them.”
“Where are we going?”
“There’s a safehouse I know in Colorado.”
“Why Colorado? That’s like, a twelve-hour drive.”
He scanned over me, his mouth growing tight, but then he sighed. “Because I want to be as far away from this border as I can be, and somewhere that’s nowhere close to the East Coast or Texas.”
“Well. Then. That makes sense.”
He grinned, his eyes softening before he patted me on the ass. “Get going. Sleep if you can, alright?”
I gave a small grin back. “You too.”
He ran a hand over his jaw. “If my sister doesn’t freak out that her arm might touch mine, I’ll try to get a nap in.”
He leaned down, giving me another soft kiss, before we parted.
SOME GUY
That girl…
A man stared at her. She was pretty. She looked like she knew the guy she was with, and he leaned down to give her a kiss. She smiled at him.