Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 68735 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68735 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
He set the phone down on the table and pushed it our way.
My breath hitched because he was showing me a picture of my son that I’d never seen before.
“When was that?” I asked quietly.
“The last birthday party that he had,” he murmured. “I brought him a birthday gift but didn’t stay. Laney brought him outside.”
My heart physically hurt.
“That’s a good picture,” I murmured, admiring two of my favorite people.
One alive. The other one gone.
“I wish you were his dad,” I found myself saying.
Audric pressed his lips to the side of my head before saying, “Gunner, this kid had an arm. I bought him that baseball, bat and glove and it was like a fish to water.”
“Jett was the same,” Gunner mused as he absently took Lottie from me when she made a move in his direction. “Maybe we can talk Ms. Lottie here into playing baseball.”
“Not softball?” I laughed.
“Softball is for losers.”
I snickered. “We’ll see. Laney was really good at softball. I might have to help her learn it if you won’t teach her. I’m not nearly as good, but at least I know the basics.”
“I tried softball once, and it scared the shit out of me, so I never tried it again,” Milena interjected. “Plus, those girls that play are so competitive.”
Phones buzzed on the table, interrupting any more conversation about softball.
Audric picked up his phone and glanced at the screen before flicking his gaze to me. “Got him.”
Twenty-Eight
My hobbies include long scrolls on my phone and eating until I hate myself.
—Creole to Audric
CREOLE
We waited until he was finished feeding himself before we made the move.
We waited in the shadows, Apollo having turned off all cameras in the immediate vicinity remotely as he rushed back home from Washington.
He’d begged us to wait, but there was no stopping Audric.
He wanted to take care of this now.
Hence the reason we’d barged in just after he’d finished eating his dinner and took him by surprise.
Getting into his house was child’s play.
It was almost as if Dr. Stoker had no clue that we’d retaliate in any way.
What was he, naïve?
I watched as Audric punched Dr. Stoker in the stomach.
He kept hitting him, too, until he had gotten some of his anger out of his system.
When he was done, Audric sat Stoker back in the computer chair that Stoker had fallen out of when Audric had hit him and strapped him to it with his robe’s belt.
Only when he was secure did he start to twist him around.
“You know the problem with having your jaw wired shut?” he asked as he twisted him around and around. “When you throw up, you have nowhere for the vomit to go. So you end up needing to swallow it. Or even inhaling it sometimes. That’s why they recommend you carry wire cutters with you, just in case.”
Without even hinting at what he was going to do, Audric stopped Stoker from spinning at the same time he reached for the small mini paddle that read ‘Bass Pro Shops’ on it and brought it down so hard on Dr. Stoker’s arm that something cracked.
Dr. Stoker made a sound in his throat, and then he was heaving.
Except the vomit had nowhere to go.
It was by far the most gruesome thing I’d ever seen.
He was throwing up, and some of the liquid was getting out from between his teeth, but I was sure even more was stuck right there in his mouth with nowhere to go.
He started choking and coughing, and soon he was convulsing in the chair, the only thing holding him up was the belt he had tied around his chest.
I watched dispassionately, only slightly alarmed by the sight.
Audric crossed his arms over his chest and watched with a dispassionate gaze.
Dr. Stoker started making a gasping noise that was somewhere between a wounded elephant and dying rhino.
“Man.” Apollo came storming through the door at my back, startling me. “I had so many things in store for him! Why’d you kill him?”
Audric turned a glare on his good friend. “Maybe if you weren’t stuck up the president’s ass, you might be able to live your life.”
Apollo grimaced. “I had no fuckin’ clue I’d be rubbing balls with the president, okay? It was an accident that I was put on that committee.”
“Whatever,” Cutter muttered. “Just tell us you like licking his balls and we won’t keep asking.”
“Fuck off,” Apollo said. “It’s interesting, okay? You would be there, too, if you could win an election.”
“Did you win an election, though?” Cutter taunted. “Or did you rig it?”
They said more, but I ignored them in favor of watching Dr. Stoker take his last breath.
I thought I’d feel a little more messed up about it, but to be truthful, I felt nothing.
I should probably get my head examined.
Most people would feel at least a little bit of sympathy.