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)
It could have been hours or days when I felt myself being lifted off the ground. “Jesus. He smells like a brewery.”
“Wonder if that bottle was full when he started.” Adam said.
“You fucking know it was full.” Tai said.
“I’m surprised he’s not dead.”
“There’s still time.”
“Very funny.” Adam deadpanned.
“Kill me.” I told them.
Their sparring barbs stopped when they heard what I said.
“Was that what you were trying to do?” Tai finally asked.
“What does it matter?”
“What matters is that Winter wouldn’t want you to do it. What matters are the people you still have here that love you. She would want you to get up off your ass and stop sulking like a little bitch.” Adam all but yelled.
Shame filled me, but it didn’t stop the feelings of not wanting to be here. What the fuck was the point? But then a memory of myself and Winter watching Romeo and Juliet popped into my head.
She’d said that she would never do that. Because it takes more strength to live than it does to die; I was going to be someone she could be proud of. Someone that she could look down on and claim.
In the meantime, I would see her in my dreams until the day I could be with her again.
***
Moaning woke me up the next morning, pulling me out of my dream faster than anything else could.
Winter. Alive. Breathing. Whole.
Propping myself up on my elbow, I let my eyes adjust and found Winter standing beside the bed with a pained expression. Standing up, I went to her side. “What are you doing?” I yelled.
“I have to pee, ass wipe.”
Grabbing her around the waist, I took her into the bathroom, and carefully set her back on her feet in front of the toilet. She wouldn’t meet my eyes, and struggled to pull her panties down without bending her leg. Seeing the problem, I carefully removed her panties, stretching them as wide as they could go to avoid the bandage on her leg.
Seeing that they were beyond repair due to the wound she’d sustained, I tossed them in the trashcan beside the toilet, then helped her sit down. She grimaced, and then gave me a pointed look that very clearly told me to get the fuck out.
Grinning at her, I turned my back on her and started the shower. I wasn’t leaving her and she could just get over it.
An unused roll of toilet paper hit me in the back of the head and I turned my head giving her a pointed look. Once my thoughts were conveyed, I turned back to the shower and started stripping out of my clothes.
“Need to wash the smell of her off you?” She snapped.
Freezing with my shirt halfway up, I stared at her twisted features. “I’ve never, nor will I ever, cheated on you.”
“Well you could have fooled me last night. Here I was, worrying about whether I was bothering you, and you prove it to me without me even asking. If you want me to leave, all you have to do is say so. You didn’t have to go out with her behind my back.”
Knowing that I should have said this a long time ago, I finally told her what we did with the Freebirds. “Do you remember what Catori’s favorite song was?”
She looked confused in the direction I was taking the subject in, but answered anyway. “Freebird. Why?”
Turning the shower off, I turned to her and helped her stand. She pulled my shirt down as far over her ass as she could, but didn’t struggle as I took her to the computer.
“Go ahead. See what you can find on that song in my files. Tell me what you see.” I demanded.
She was beyond confused, but her nimble fingers worked over the keyboard like lightning. It wasn’t but three minutes later that she gasped. “What the hell are y’all doing? Good hiding by the way. Would have been impenetrable if I didn’t know you so well.”
I smiled at her praise, but told her what the files were about. “We started Freebirds after I got out of the army. Sam put up the capital, but the idea was all me. Later on, an anonymous donor helped us fund the program. I wanted there to be someone that a woman could call if she had no one else. If she couldn’t break free. I wanted to help them fly.”
Tears filled her eyes as she finally understood. “She would be so proud of you. So that was Teal?”
“Yes.” I said simply.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You had so much going on that I didn’t want to add to it. I didn’t want you to worry either. What we do isn’t very legal. I knew you would want to help, and I didn’t want you to bring any attention, whatsoever, to yourself. We still don’t know who the man is that attacked you, and I didn’t want to take any chances.”
“What about last night? Why not last night?”
“Stupidity.” I finally acknowledged.
Holding up her hand to me, I took it and helped her to her feet. She wrapped her arms around me and leaned into my chest. “Don’t do that to me anymore. Don’t shelter me. I’ve experienced a lot of things in my life. I don’t need you to keep things from me, too. It won’t help.”
“I won’t.”
“Promise?”
“Pinky.” I said holding my pinky finger in the air.
Laughing, she took her pinky and curled it around mine. “One of these days, Jackopa, your charm won’t get you out of the hole you dig.”
“Hopefully not any time soon.”
Chapter 13
Tupperware? More like Tupperwhere. As in: Where the fuck is the fucking lid?
-E-card
Winter
Please. Please. Please.
I repeated continually in my head. I prayed that he would just fucking do it already.
“I told you to stop. You’re going to be fucking damaged and then I won’t get anything for you.” Peter said.
Peter, the best man that I could ask for my sister. Not. How did she not see this in him? The horridness. The evilness that leaked from his pores.