Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 94716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Her overly large shirt and baggy blue jeans looked horrible on her. It was blatantly obvious that she’d gotten them at a thrift store. The clothes didn’t detract from her beauty though. Her cheekbones were high, and her eyes had a slight tilt to them that eluded to some Chinese heritage in her family tree. The only two things that gave away her heritage was the black hair and the exotic eyes.
What did stand out was the huge ass bruise that overtook three quarters of her face. From what I’d been told by Sam, her ex-husband wasn’t a very happy man. He wanted her back, and didn’t care what he had to do to keep her there.
She’d been running for six months when she was given our number by another one of our Freebirds that volunteered at a woman’s shelter where we relocated her. She’d called about two weeks later when her ex caught up to her and chained her to the hotel bed. A house cleaner had stopped by and found her like that while the ex was getting dinner.
The police were called, but he’d seen the commotion and high tailed it out of there. Teal didn’t believe for one second that her husband had given up though. Hence, why she called us.
Slowly, she came out of her frightened stance and handed her bag to James with a slight quiver to her hands. He took them gently and dropped them in the bed of the truck before opening the passenger door for her.
She slid in warily, glancing quickly at me before turning away again. She shrunk as far away as possible when she caught my stare. Gritting my teeth, I made eye contact with James, and we shared a moment. Both of us were well aware that this was hard for her. This wasn’t our first rodeo, but damned if it wasn’t hard each and every time a woman cowered away from us.
James strapped the seatbelt on her and the blush that rose over Teal’s face was almost comical. Bright fucking red; the color of ripe cherry tomatoes, rose up from her neck and took over her face. James smiled to himself before he closed the door and got himself settled in the backseat. The man was a “doll” according to Winter, but she kept saying it would have to take someone extremely special to take James on.
“We have you on a bus to Arkansas. There’s a man there that’s going to help you get settled. He’s our former commanding officer, and he’s trustworthy,” I explained, as I handed over the file that had her name and new identification in it. “Memorize this.”
“Thank you.” She said quietly; so quiet that I barely heard it.
I glanced in the rearview mirror and saw James sitting forward in his seat. As far as the seatbelt allowed. His eyes were focused intently on Teal and I shook my head. Getting attached to these women were not in our best interest, but it wasn’t easy to be so detached. It was in their best interest, however, because they never stayed in our presence for long. It was safer for them, and all the other women we’d relocated in the past.
We were the middlemen in this grown up game of hide and seek. We used our resources and abilities to get them somewhere safe. If we were somehow discovered, we didn’t want to be close to anyone in case anything ever happened and we were discovered as the ones who helped him or her get out.
Flashing red and blue lights shined on the horizon, and I slowed to a stop nearly a mile back. Traffic was being diverted to the shoulder, and the three lanes of the loop were blocked off by multiple fire trucks and ambulances.
After nearly ten minutes of moving at less than a crawl, we finally got close enough to see. Traffic stopped again when we were about ten cars back in order to let a black and white through that was pulling an emergency light.
Other lights were already being set up, and it resembled a miniature football field with all the stadium lights lit, but in a much smaller area.
“Is that Winter?” James asked.
My eyes shifted from the cop car to scan the area. “Where?”
“On top of that car.”
Scanning, my eyes finally found the three vehicles that were in the accident. Two of them were so smashed up, they no longer resembled anything close to a vehicle. The last one was on its side, but at least it didn’t look like it’d been battered by a wrecking ball.
What I saw first was the fiery orange curls bound up on top of a head. Then I saw the heart shaped ass poked high in the air. Not for long though, because she came back up through the passenger window with a car seat in her arms. The car seat had a squalling infant in it.
I breathed a sigh of relief that the baby was okay enough to cry.
The accident looked horrific and whoever was in the other two cars probably weren’t as lucky.
“Line’s moving.” Teal said quietly.
Turning my attention away from Winter, I started to move with the traffic. Just as I was parallel with the overturned cars, I looked over one more time.
Only Winter was no longer preoccupied with the baby, she was staring right at me. Her mouth was opened, her face had a look which resembled pain and her eyes were directly on me.
And Teal.
Fuck.
Chapter 12
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Translation: Bitches be crazy, so don’t fuck with them.
-E-card
Winter
“There’s some guy waiting for you to come out of the side entrance.” A nurse said from beside me as I had her sign my report.
“What’s he look like?” I asked, even though I didn’t need the confirmation.
I knew who it was. I also knew I did not want to talk to him. Not now. Not ever.
“Tall, muscular, tanned skin, black hair. Hot body. Tall drink of water on the worst day of a Texas summer.”