Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 77505 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77505 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Sure enough, that was what everyone thought.
So Colter and I cleaned up as well as we could and trekked all the way back to the parked motorcycles with Syn to drive to the clubhouse and wait for the girls to get ready and join us.
Saint stayed behind.
With the bodies.
The mess.
And yes, the dogs I hated leaving, but knew I couldn’t bring them to the hotel.
“That had to suck,” I said when we climbed off the bikes at the hotel, watching the way Colter’s face was contorted in pain from the bike’s vibrations and bumps in the road. His bruised ribs had been taking one hell of a beating.
“It wasn’t my most enjoyable ride,” he admitted. “Why don’t you get the girls in my room and settled? I’m gonna go grab some elastic bandages and a first aid kit.”
He was only telling half the truth.
I knew this man now.
He was going to be compiling gift baskets for the girls.
I wasn’t sure it was possible to love him more than I did right then.
Until he came into the hotel room and dropped the baskets full of soft, sweet, thoughtful goodies for the girls. And big care packages for the two new dogs… and Sugar. So she didn’t feel left out.
“Who’d’ve thought a bag of chicken jerky would get you all soft and sweet on me?” he said when I threw myself into his arms for what felt like the hundredth time that day.
“They’re going to know love for the first time in their whole lives,” I said, using the palms of my hands to wipe the tears from my eyes.
“Who is?” Emma asked, clutching her pink butterfly squishy stuffed animal to her chest as she stood in the doorway of the connecting room.
“The dogs,” I admitted, looking over.
She looked better.
Just a shower, some food, and a change into the clean clothes Colter had gotten her had made such a difference already.
“Mack and Molly?” she asked, her head tipped to the side.
“They do have names. At least he gave them that.”
“Not much else,” Emma admitted. “He wouldn’t even ‘waste good food’ on them. He put them out to hunt for their own food. It was cruel. We weren’t fed much either, but we tried to slip them some food whenever we could. Especially Molly.”
“Why especially Molly?” I asked.
Emma grimaced a little.
“She’s pregnant, isn’t she?” Colter asked.
“She is,” Emma said.
“How’d you know?”
“Her belly looked a little stretched to me already. Like she’d had a litter before.”
“She did. Not long after Roach brought her home. He said if he was going to have guard dogs, they were going to earn their keep by making puppies he could sell.”
“Wait, I thought dogs only had one litter a year,” I said.
“They have two heat cycles a year,” Colter said. “So they can have two litters a year. But no ethical person would let them. It’s not good for them. Especially for a bastard like Roach, who I’m sure didn’t get her vet care.”
“No,” Emma said, her eyes sad.
“We’ll get her to a vet,” Colter assured me, pressing a hand into my lower back. “Mack too. Then get them both fixed so it stops. After the puppies, obviously.”
“I know you didn’t sign up for puppies.”
“Signed up for you,” he said. “And I’ll happily take whatever comes along with that.”
“Aww,” Emma said, shooting me a soft smile. “I never thought I’d see her actually tolerate a man,” she added, looking at Colter. “Let alone fall for one. You must be pretty special.”
“I mean, she’s really in it for the gift baskets,” Colter said, making us both laugh.
“That’s definitely a part of it,” I agreed as Emma retreated to the connecting room to love on a very happy Sugar.
“What’s the other part?” he asked.
“The orgasms, obviously,” I said, pushing him down to the edge of the bed.
“Really? Not the beard?” he asked.
“That’s part of the orgasms,” I reminded him. “No, don’t give me that look. You’re not getting any until those ribs heal.”
“Like hell. I can power through,” he insisted as I pulled out the first aid kit to start cleaning up his hands.
We both knew that abstinence was not going to happen, no matter how beaten and battered we were. But it wasn’t the time.
“So, what happens now?”
“Now, I think you should stay here with the girls. Make sure they have what they need. Make sure you are taking care of yourself too. The guys will probably drop Morgaine and Vienna here. Then they will head out to the clubhouse with us to help with the cleanup. They have a car, so they’ll bring the dogs out of there when we’re done.”
“We can’t bring three dogs into the hotel.”
“No,” he agreed. “But we can find a more dog-friendly one over near the city for a night or two. Just until we can get to the other girls and get them all into rehab.”