Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 94624 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94624 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
I was so pleased. “Won’t you come along as well, Roland?”
“You two go ahead. I’ll follow with drinks in just a moment,” he said, smiling at me.
“If your wife is here with you, I’d love to meet her.”
He sighed heavily. “She’s not, actually.”
“Maybe next time,” I offered.
“Perhaps,” he whispered and then turned away.
“Lead on,” Aiden ordered, taking hold of my bicep to get me moving.
It was a bit strange. As a rule I didn’t love anyone but my husband manhandling me, but he let go quickly. When we were close to an opening covered by a curtain—there were movable exhibits—he bumped me. Caught off-balance, I stumbled, and before I could turn, he shoved me face-first into the wall. I wasn’t sure what was going on until he was crowded up against me, his groin pressed to my ass and his lips next to my ear.
“How about a quick one before anyone notices we’re gone?”
Years ago, when I was in my early twenties, occasionally, I would get pushed around. Normally I could talk myself out of being assaulted because whoever had me in their hands knew me and liked me, and it was mostly a miscommunication that could be quickly remedied. If it was a stranger, sometimes I laughed, and that could go either way, but true danger, except for once, I had never been in. And I wasn’t in any at the moment. I was just mad.
“Have you lost your fuckin’ mind?!” I yelled.
“Keep your voice down,” he tried to soothe me.
“Seriously,” I said, taking a breath. “You have, like, a second to get your hands off me. Not only is your friend Roland a client of mine, but also Aaron Sutter. Do you know what I could do to your start-up with a bad word to him?”
He was off me and back through the curtain in seconds.
I would have said, did you see the man who is twice your size with the arms like tree trunks? But if he hadn’t seen Sam, his whole life might have not flashed in front of his eyes. This, the threat to his business was so much better.
Once I walked back through the curtain, I saw that Sam was walking toward me, and I waved. Oddly, as I stood there, smiling like the village idiot because my husband was getting closer, I saw his eyes darken as he sped up. I stood there and waited, and his scowl was a surprise as he reached me. Instantly, he put one hand on my cheek and the other on my forehead. He looked bleary for some reason, and when I saw him lift one of his hands, there was blood. That was a surprise, as was the way he suddenly melted.
I have to be honest; I hate waking up in the hospital. The only thing worse is waking up in the hospital to my scowling son and my daughter pacing.
“Oh no,” I said.
Kola caught his breath, Hannah gasped, and Jake jolted beside me in the chair he was sleeping in.
“I spoiled your Valentine’s Day,” I lamented.
“No.” Jake was the one able to speak first. “You just made it.”
He was smiling so happily at me, it made me smile back. Jake really did have the best face. I liked it a lot.
“What happened?” I asked my son, because Hannah moved really fast and bent over the bed and pressed her face into the side of my neck like she used to do when she was little. She used to like to smell me.
He took my hand in his. “That guy, Aiden whatever, when he shoved you into the wall, he clipped your forehead on a corner, and it split open the skin right above your left eyebrow.”
“Really?”
He nodded.
“And how did you find this all out?”
“Because after Dad caught you when you passed out, he yelled, loud, from what Aunt Aja said, and then, from what I understand, the shit hit the fan.”
“In what way?” I asked hesitantly.
“In every way,” Kola said, glaring at me.
I groaned, horrified that I’d caused a scene. “How did your father know that Aiden slammed me into the wall?”
“Because they have a video camera back there.”
I grunted. “That’s too bad.”
“Pa!” Hannah cried out, sitting up to look at me.
“What? It is too bad. Aiden and I had settled things, and now he’s in trouble.”
“He certainly is,” Kola said darkly.
“That was very ominous,” I replied.
“Well, there are two things that kept him alive,” Kola began, squeezing my hand for a moment. “First, he left. So he wasn’t there when Dad was holding you before the ambulance arrived. And second, the cops went to pick him up, not anyone from the marshals service because Dad would never violate his office that way and send, I dunno, Ian maybe.”
“Where is your father?” I asked them.
“He’s on his way back from filing charges.”