Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68509 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68509 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
I knew the names of all of her aunts and uncles—all of them from said biker club, not blood—and cousins who were all her best friends. Especially the girls. Who she thought might be moments away from hopping a plane and coming to find her themselves if she didn’t show up soon.
Not having a lot of family left to talk about, I told her mostly about my travels, about how doing so had expanded my mindset, made me really give a shit about the environment that I’d never really considered before. But when you watched deforestation driving out precious animal species, when you’d lived through some of the worsening storms, and seen the aftermath of horrific wildfires, you started to care.
That was why I started to invest in my uncle’s company. I wanted to encourage people to see the wonders of the rainforest… without negatively impacting the rainforest itself.
Some part of me wished I had never decided to invest.
But that said, if I hadn’t, I never would have been arrested. I wouldn’t have skipped out on bail. Violet wouldn’t have come across my file and followed me. We wouldn’t have gone deep into the jungle together, gotten to know each other, and had feelings start to grow.
“Hey, duchess. Think I got the solution here,” I said, rolling the rock over to the side of her body and setting up the rock fulcrum. “How’re the legs doing? Can you still move your feet for me?”
In answer, she wiggled her toes.
“Okay, good,” I said, turning to go drag my limb over. “Now, I’m gonna need you to move as fast as possible as soon as I get this thing lifted. Don’t try to stand or anything, just pull your legs out of the way.”
“Can do,” she agreed, moving to sit and reaching down to wrap her hands under her upper thighs, ready to pull them if she needed to.
I positioned the limb to act as a lever, then looked at Violet.
“Ready?”
She gave me a tight nod before her gaze slid to her legs, watching closely for the slightest bit of room.
A loud curse escaped me as I pushed down with everything I had onto the beam.
Sweat pricked my brow as my arms, back, and shoulders screamed.
“Got it,” Vi said, pulling her legs back with so much force that she rolled back into a ball, hugging them to her chest.
Careful not to drop the limb too hard and risk hitting her, I lowered it back to the ground before rushing to her side.
“You okay?” I asked as she stretched out and stared up at me, her breathing fast.
“It’s like pins and needles dialed up to eleven,” she said, rubbing the heels of her hands against her thighs.
“Just the blood returning,” I assured her. Honestly, I had no idea for sure. That was just my hope.
Violet shook her legs, hit them with her hands, clenched them together—anything to try to ease the nerves firing off.
She had some scratches from the bark, and I imagined the bruises would set in as the day went on, but it could have been so much worse.
“Okay,” she said after a long moment. “Alright. Let’s try standing.”
I got up first, still feeling a little spinning, but it eased more quickly.
Vi took my offered hand, but as soon as her legs took her full weight, they buckled.
I pulled her up against me, letting her hold onto me as her legs adjusted. I hoped. Otherwise, our movement would be even slower if I had to have her piggyback or pull her.
Slowly but surely, though, she took more of her own weight until, finally, she was standing on her own.
“This has been a crazy twenty-four hours,” she declared as she reached upward, feeling my head. “You have a giant goose egg.”
“It’ll be fine. The nausea is better, and the dizziness is only when I move my head too fast.”
“And it’s not like there’s much we can do anyway,” she said, sighing.
“We’re almost out of here. I can feel it.”
“Let’s hope. We should get moving, right? Those guys weren’t far behind before the storm. And getting that limb off of me…”
“Yeah,” I agreed, hating that I couldn’t give her more time to rest and recover. But I would hate it a lot more if she ended up shot, so I sighed and started walking.
Hopefully, that was our three things.
And everything else would be smooth sailing from here on out…
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Violet
We were slow-moving through the greenery that was, at times, claustrophobically thick. My thighs were aching, slowing our pace considerably. I figured that was a good thing, since I wasn’t convinced Wick’s concussion was as mild as he wanted me to believe.
“I can’t believe people do this for fun,” I grumbled, ripping vines out of my way so we could keep moving forward.
“In their defense, they know where they are and how quickly they can get home to a nice, comfortable bed, cooked food, and electricity.”