Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 70444 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70444 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
I found myself grinning. “I’d say that I was thankful,” I admitted. “Because then I wouldn’t have to wait for the news that I probably won’t like either way.”
She stepped away from me and walked to her apartment door, opening it, and reaching just barely inside to what looked like her purse that was on the table just inside the door. She came back out moments later with a sealed envelope in her hands.
“I did it without your permission,” she admitted.
Then she held out the paper.
I reached for it about the time that I heard two very distinct sounds.
The first sound was my apartment door opening. It had a very distinct squeak once you got it halfway open, and when I looked, I saw Roland standing there with a look of confusion on his face.
Then I heard the tell-tale click-click of a gun cocking.
I had no time to think, let alone act.
The gunshot rang out, and I watched June fall out of the corner of my eye.
I turned, but before I could catch her, she was on the floor.
Seeing June on the ground with an ever-growing puddle of blood surrounding her felt like someone had taken my heart straight out of my chest and used it as clay target while they were shooting skeet.
I hit my knees, looking at my woman’s life bleeding out right before my eyes, confused by what I was seeing at first.
But Roland was more than aware.
He hit Rosie like a linebacker taking out the quarterback before he can run it in for the winning touchdown.
Rosie hit the ground so hard that I could hear the snap of bones from where I was on my knees at June’s side.
Amanda came barreling out of her apartment moments later and then slipped in June’s blood which was pouring out of her arm.
She hit the floor hard just as I reached to take my belt off.
I quickly wrapped it around her upper arm, right around her armpit.
“Johnny,” June whispered.
There was no way that I heard the words amongst all the commotion that was now going on in the hallway.
Amanda’s worried cries, Rosie’s pained screaming. Roland’s angry bellows for Rosie to stay down so he didn’t have to do anything more to her.
Then there were the neighbors that had started coming out of their apartments.
But I heard her, and I looked down in her eyes.
“I don’t want to die when you finally made me want to live.”
Then her eyes fluttered closed, and I followed suit.
***
“If there was one thing in this world that could’ve snapped me out of that…it was this.” Roland breathed roughly, looking at me with fear in his large, worry-filled brown eyes. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Would you two shut up already? My head is throbbing. Jesus Christ. Is it still there?”
I looked over and stood up at the same time, hurrying to the bed where June was laying.
She’d been shot in the upper arm, and she lost a lot of blood before I was able to slow it down, and she also had a concussion. After she’d been hit, June fell to the ground, hitting her head hard on the wall on the way down.
“Hey, baby.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “If you loved me, you’d go get me some water. I taste metal. Why do I taste metal?”
I found myself grinning. “A metallic taste. Blood, maybe?” I guessed.
She squinted, and then pursed her lips.
I dropped mine down on hers. “Now…water.”
I went and got her some water, but as I was bringing it back, something caught my attention, stopping me in my tracks before I could go back into June’s room.
And that was the sight of Rosie’s mom, Sharon, at the entrance waiting for me.
“Hello, Johnny.”
Chapter 27
My debit card is starting to feel like a gift card. I don’t know how much this has on it, but we’ll give it a try.
-June to Johnny
Johnny
Sharon looked at me with concern.
“I didn’t think to tell you, Johnny, because the baby’s not yours,” she admitted. “Hank’s father is the man that she met after you left for basic training. They had a two-year fling, and as far as I can tell, had something going until he died in a car wreck about a month before you showed back up after being injured.”
I touched my fingertips to my forehead. “Not mine?”
She shook her head. “Not yours, no.”
I felt Amanda’s attention on me as I spoke with Sharon, and I looked at her.
“Not yours,” she agreed.
I didn’t bother to ask her how she knew that.
I trusted her.
But it was doubly confirmed when Sharon held her phone toward me moments later and showed me the screen where a photo was pulled up.
I definitely saw the resemblance between me and the man on the screen.
He could’ve been my doppelganger, except for all the tattoos.