Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 111676 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 558(@200wpm)___ 447(@250wpm)___ 372(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111676 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 558(@200wpm)___ 447(@250wpm)___ 372(@300wpm)
“Look.” I gently removed her hands from her face. “It’s pitch black outside. You had on a ski mask. There’s no way they can identify you.” Hopefully, there weren’t cameras to go with that alarm system. Or a streetlight that would have allowed someone to see her because one thing was certain, any man who got the smallest glimpse of her silhouette would be able to pick her out of a lineup. “But, Jesus Christ, Jade…a house?”
Back in Dayton, the guys and I had robbed countless houses. But that was us—all of us—with a driver and a lookout. This was Jade. She wasn’t a criminal. She was above that shit.
“What about my car?” Her voice cracked on a sob. “I left it there.”
She’d driven her car to a house she’d planned to rob? She may not have been a criminal, but she had to have known better than that.
“Jade…” Sirens blared outside the house.
“I know. I know! But how else was I going to carry stuff?”
Red and blue lights flashed through the kitchen window. Tires screeched to a halt. Jade’s tear-filled eyes widened. “Oh, my God. I’m going to go to jail.”
Those cops weren’t outside of my house by chance, but like hell, I was going to just let her get cuffed without some kind of fight. “Just…” I grabbed her by the shoulders and shoved her toward the doorway. “Go upstairs, take off those clothes, get in the bed, and don’t come out of that room. Understood?”
She gave a curt nod before bolting down the hall, Dog right behind her. I had no idea how in the absolute hell I was going to get her out of that shitshow, but I had to think fast.
Fourteen
Wolf
I stood on the dark porch, waving with a smile when the cruiser pulled off. God, if Hendrix saw me doing that shit, he’d give me crap for days. I could literally hear him—You weak, stumpy sack of shit, risking your own ass for Weirdo, letting her work her Medusa-pussy-whipped powers all over you. And he wouldn’t be wrong. I’d just given a false report—with my signature—to the cops. For Jade.
I closed the door and stared at the stolen car report as I climbed the steps. God, what kind of shit had I just gotten myself into?
Jade sat cross-legged in the middle of my bed, wearing sleep shorts and a tank I could see her nipples through. Dog greeted me with a small chirp, then buried himself under the crumpled sheets.
“Are they gone?” she sniffed, wiping tears from her splotchy face.
“Yes.”
Her shoulders relaxed on a heavy breath. “Thank you.”
I passed the police report to her. “Your car was ‘stolen,’ by the way.”
She looked from the piece of paper to me, then burst into tears. “I’m so—” she pulled in a ragged breath—“sorry.”
There went that pull in my chest, the urge to wipe those damned tears away. “Look, don’t worry about it. The cop was more concerned about the signed jersey I promised to give his kid than anything else. Bribery goes a long way.”
A weak smile tugged at her lips, but the tears didn’t stop. I knew Jade. She’d been raised to hate crime by parents determined to never let her fall into it. Despite living in Dayton, and dating me, she’d always been above that shit—the occasional act of arson notwithstanding.
She pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes. “What am I doing, Wolf?”
“The question isn’t, what are you doing?” I sank to the bed beside her. “It’s why you’re doing it?”
She didn’t answer me, but I wanted to know.
I needed to know. “Jade. Why? This isn’t like you.”
“I know. I don’t want to be doing this, but…” God, those tears were killing me. “I need the money. My dad’s sick. He can’t work.”
Some families could manage on one person’s income, people in Dayton…they couldn’t manage on two people working two jobs. Someone had to pick up the slack. When my mom fell ill, my criminal activity skyrocketed into the stratosphere. I couldn’t stand sitting back and watching my parents struggle. After she had died, I couldn’t handle watching my dad grapple with the medical debt. So, I did what I could. Deal and steal… I think he always knew I wasn’t just working a normal job, but he never asked questions. Never said anything other than “Be careful,” with a meaningful look.
“And you’ve been stealing stuff to try to help them out?” I gently gripped her chin and lifted her watery gaze to mine. “The drugs included?”
“They are in so much debt on the mortgage, the bank was about to repossess. The drug money bought them another month. But now my car broke down, and Dad needs new meds.” She sucked in a deep breath. “I think I’m going to have to drop out and get a full-time job.”