Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 68459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 342(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 342(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
With that, I headed to my truck, but stopped before I managed to get all the way inside.
“One day, you’re going to need her,” I summarized. “One day, you’re going to hear that we’ve had kids, or find out that I’m a cop and need a parking ticket taken care of, and you’re gonna think to yourself… I really shouldn’t have thrown her away like that for some prank gift you get off on giving her. Because as long as I’m around, you’re going to have absolutely nothing to do with her life.”
Getting in, I slammed the truck door a little too hard, and backed out of the driveway.
My phone rang, and I answered it with hands free mode on my truck.
“Yeah?” I grumbled.
“What crawled up your ass?” Quinn asked.
I pinched the bridge of my nose when I got to the stoplight right outside of Hollis’s parents’ subdivision.
“A long story. What’s up?” I asked.
“You called me, bro,” Quinn pointed out.
I snorted, remembering now.
“Oh, yeah,” I mumbled. “So I was picking up Hollis…”
“Who’s Hollis?” Quinn asked.
“Hollis is the stalker Quaid had me looking out for to protect that comedian who was in town not long ago,” I said.
“I’m sorry, but can you repeat that?” he laughed. “I don’t think I heard you correctly.”
“You heard me,” I chuckled.
“Okay,” he said. “So you’re dating a stalker?”
“I’m not dating her…” I paused, reconsidering my answer before saying, “Yet.”
“Okay, so this stalker you’re not dating yet, what’s she got to do with why you called me earlier? On my day off, might I add. I was sound asleep, and you woke me up. I wasn’t even able to get back to sleep,” he grumbled.
I would’ve felt bad had I not been in such a shit mood.
If there was one of us who slept less than me, it was Quinn.
Being the leader of the gang unit was hard.
Especially when there was a gang war going on.
Then again, there was always a gang war going on.
“You were sound asleep, I woke you up, and you still call me back over an hour later?” I asked.
“I don’t wake up well, and you know it.” Quinn chuckled, clearly amused with himself. “Now tell me what you called for.”
I rolled my eyes, then got down to business just as the light turned green.
I rolled my eyes at a distracted driver who ran the red light. I had to slam on my brakes to avoid colliding with him, then responded.
“Saw Costas riding up and down Hollis’s block. Right in front of her apartment complex,” I explained. “Made the circuit twice while I was there.”
“What?” Quinn asked, sounding a whole lot more serious.
So I repeated what I saw.
“Where does she live?” he asked, sounding like he was searching for a notepad to jot some notes down on.
I explained, telling him about the area where I saw Costas driving, what he was driving, and then explained about the apartment building that she lived in.
“Sounds like a perfect place to run some shit,” Quinn mused. “Empty apartment building. Mostly. No one around to narc on him. I’ll get my guys down there, see what we can find out.” He hesitated. “Are you bringing her to dinner?”
I grinned then. “Yeah. And my next call is to Mom. Listen to this shit…”
By the time I finished the call with my brother, explaining what had happened today, then called my mom and told her who I was bringing to dinner, I’d made it back to Hollis’s place.
When I pulled up, surprisingly finding a front row spot right in front of the apartment, I saw her get out of the car way in the back of the apartment’s lot.
Surprisingly pleased that she’d waited for me to get there to get out of her car, I waited for her to arrive at the front door of her apartment complex before saying, “Let’s grab that stuff out of your car.”
She shook her head sadly, then fell into step beside me, not saying a word.
I didn’t like this dejected Hollis. I liked the openly argumentative, going to go down fighting no matter what it takes, Hollis.
Gathering up all of the stuff but the smallest bag, we threw it all into my truck and locked the doors.
I followed her without a word, unsure what to say. What I wanted to say was probably something she wasn’t ready to hear when it came to her toxic parents, and since I wanted more with her than just today, I chose to still my tongue.
She walked up to her door, placed the key in the lock, and opened it.
The iguana’s tail fell into the gap the door made.
She turned, ignoring the tail, and stared at me with those cognac eyes of her.
So freakin’ beautiful.
“Thank you.”
I leaned forward, kissed her chastely on the lips, then pulled away before saying, “I was serious about returning that stuff and taking you somewhere. Get the receipts of whatever you need to bring with you.”