Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 88215 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88215 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
“Because you zoned out. I saw that look in your eyes you used to get when you would wash the world around you away and crawled inside your own head. You weren’t there. I…I got hard. I fucking came for Christ’s sake!”
Rage rolls her eyes and shrugs. “Eh, different strokes for different folks. I once read about a guy who can only come with a gun to his head. Nobody’s screaming rape at the lady holding it. That’s biology, asshole. What else you got? ‘Cause that excuse is as weak as nonalcoholic beer. I AIN’T BUYING IT.”
Rage smiles and this time it’s genuine.
“What the fuck do you know about biology?” I ask, feeling the mood lighten around us. She doesn’t blame me. Don’t mean I can’t blame myself, but maybe I don’t have to fucking hate myself so much.
Not about this anyway.
“Besides being a germ expert, as you know, I am also a college graduate now.”
“You went to college?” I look at her with disbelief. “In a year and a half?”
She wrinkles her nose. “More like a half an hour. Just for enough time to threaten the dean into giving me a degree. It’s real pretty, too. I framed it. It’s hanging in my room at the MC. Come by. I’ll show it to you sometime.”
I chuckle. “Same old Rage,” I say, then reconsider my words. “Yet not the same ole Rage.”
Rage stills. “Don’t move, okay? I’m gonna try something,” she whispers, taking a step toward me.
I shift my feet. Rage is unpredictable, but she’s still Rage, and I trust her even though I know I shouldn’t. “Okay, but what are…”
“I said don’t move!”
I’m stone still as her tiny arms wrap around my waist, and she leans her head against me. I’m so much bigger that her head only comes to the bottom of my ribs.
“Thank you for helping me all those years ago,” she says. “Thank you for being my friend when I didn’t know what a friend was supposed to be. Thank you for setting me up with Nolan although you did it in the weirdest way possible. Thank you for knowing I needed him before I knew I needed him. Just, thank you, Smoke.”
“I…” I sputter, not knowing what to say. I feel myself soften, and before I know it, I’m placing one of my hands over her tiny head. I kiss the top of her hair.
“It’s all done. It’s over!” Rage announces, pulling away and clapping her hands together. “Now, let’s kill something and string its intestines up like Christmas lights.” The crazed look in her eyes returns, the one I’ve known and loved since the first time I saw her when she was sixteen years old.
“Yep, same ole, Rage.” I chuckle. “You got all this feelings shit down pat, don’t ya?”
Her shoulders drop. “Yeah, but it’s exhausting. There are so many layers of feelings, and sometimes, I just want to blow shit up and forget about it all, but…it’s worth it. Nolan’s worth it.” Rage points at me. “You’re worth it.”
“Thanks for coming, princess,” I tell her. I mean it.
“You’re very fucking welcome. This place isn’t nearly as gross as I thought it would be, so that’s a plus. Now, what the fuck do you have going on here, and please, please, please, can I do something involving knife play to whoever you have tied up back there?”
I think about how much to tell Rage.
“All of it. Tell me all of it,” she says knowingly. She skips into the house and props herself up on the kitchen counter. I shake my head and follow her inside.
I grab a bottle of whiskey from the table and take a long pull. “You remember Morgan?”
Rage nods. “Yeah, the brunette. Walked in on you banging her one day. I liked her. Great tits. No over the top moaning. Seemed clean.”
Clean to Rage means a lot since she’s a germaphobe and OCD and a lot of other things I don’t know the specific terms for.
“She’s dead,” I tell her, looking down at the bottle in my hand.
Rage doesn’t react because Rage doesn’t react. She lifts her chin and waits for me to continue.
I sigh. “Short version is that I found her in a pool of her own fucking blood. Hacked to bits. Couldn’t for the life of me figure out who did it until I got a lead from Griff. Frank Helburn, a hacker scumbag, is the one who did it although I have no clue why. The girl in the back room? She’s his kid. Using her to flush her old man out.”
“That all?” She asks, knowing me better than I know my fucking self.
I shake my head and light yet another smoke and take an even bigger swig of whiskey. “Nope. That’s not all. Morgan…she was carrying my kid.”