Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69807 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69807 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
“Why didn’t you send it back and ask for no mustard?” I asked, reaching for a slice of supreme while she took a slice of cheese.
“Well.” She looked hesitant, as if she didn’t want to tell me why, but then decided to do it anyway. “Money’s tight. I’m about to be in my final semester of school. Which, thank God, got paid for by a scholarship. But I still have to do so many clinical hours, as well as try to get a full-time schedule in that usually only ends up being part-time. Anyway, long story short, I don’t have the kind of money to be complaining about food that people give me. Manuella saved me that burger today because someone asked for mustard and didn’t want the mustard after she got it.”
“Manuella saves you food?” I asked.
“Sometimes.” She shrugged. “Manuella can’t just give me stuff for free. But if there’s a complaint, and she’s on shift, she’ll usually save it for me.”
“Gotcha,” I said as I contemplated ways to pay for Aella’s stuff without her finding out. “Hopefully this’ll give you a couple of days to feed yourself on.”
I’d eat two pieces and say that I was full.
That’d give her a few extra days’ worth of lunch while I came up with a solution.
I could probably put a pizza and a half away, but I could grab something to eat on the way home.
“Did you get the money to the charity yet?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said. “That’s what I was doing before I came here. Making sure that it got there all right. You have any idea how much your mom had?”
She shrugged. “I have no clue. That much money was a bit overwhelming to me, and let’s be completely honest here. I’ve never seen that much money in my life. It’s a little shocking to even consider.”
“Five hundred and fifteen thousand,” I said.
Her eyes widened.
I pulled out a stack of cash from my pocket, then put it on the table.
“What…” She looked at the money. “You didn’t donate it all?”
“I kept some,” I admitted. “Because I felt like you could use some of it to pay for your car to get fixed. And split some with your sister.”
She opened her mouth and then closed it. “That’s very sweet but…”
“But you’re keeping it,” I pointed out. “It’s not much. Five thousand dollars. It’s enough to get you both a little of what you need.”
“It’s not much?” She laughed as she looked at it. “Newsflash, Chevy, but that’s the kind of money I could live off for the next year.”
“Then do it,” I returned.
“I can’t…” she hesitated some more.
I stood up and braced my hands on the table, using my size to intimidate her. “Either you keep it, or I go get more of it and keep dropping it off until you figure out that I’m not playing around.”
She snapped her mouth shut.
I grinned at her and took my final slice of pizza and headed to the door. “See you tomorrow at work, Whirlwind.”
I had the door wide open, and I was swinging it shut behind me when I popped my head back through and said, “Oh, and Aella?”
She looked up, eyes wide. “Yeah?”
“Enjoy your A/C.”
Her mouth fell open in shock, and she started to look around as if she could see the cold air now coming out of the vents.
I didn’t wait for her to reply as I headed out to my bike.
I did, however, send out another text to Apollo and ask him to look into their bank accounts.
It would be a lot easier if I could just dump some cash into her account and she didn’t know where it came from.
Thirteen
Honestly, I love every single some of you.
—Aella’s secret thoughts
AELLA
I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel, wondering if I was crazy for what I was about to do.
I shouldn’t be here, dropping this money off, but I’d spent the entire night thinking about it, and I just couldn’t do it.
I couldn’t take this money.
It felt…wrong.
Like I’d taken it and shouldn’t have.
It was why I was walking up to Chevy’s bike seconds later and touching his saddlebags.
No one else would be crazy enough to do what I was about to do.
Everyone who was anyone knew not to touch a Truth Teller’s bike.
The reaction of the men was swift and offensive.
I’d heard of one man that’d thought it would be funny to push one over while he was out drinking at a bar, and when the Truth Teller had found out, he’d ruined the man’s life.
Not that the man hadn’t deserved it.
From what I’d heard, the drunk had been beating his wife up and treating his kids like crap.
But still…
Testing the saddlebags, I found that one hadn’t been clasped all the way.
Thankful that I wouldn’t have to pick the lock—something that I’d learned to do at a young age when my mother had found it easier to lock us in our rooms than provide babysitters—I shoved the money into the saddlebag and locked it into place.