Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 25067 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 125(@200wpm)___ 100(@250wpm)___ 84(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 25067 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 125(@200wpm)___ 100(@250wpm)___ 84(@300wpm)
Jimmie nodded and drew in a deep breath, his chest expanding against my own. “Yeah, therapy is a good idea. And if it makes you more comfortable, we can find you a virtual therapist. Do you have health insurance?” I shook my head. Wyatt had Medicaid, but I couldn’t afford health insurance for myself. Anytime I got sick enough to need a doctor, I usually just went to urgent care. “I’ll pay for your therapy.”
“Jimmie—” I started, pulling away to look at him, shaking my head.
He tugged me back into his arms. “Argue all you want, baby, but you’ll lose. You’re mine. I told you that last night.” My cheeks flushed at the reminder of what we’d done the night before. Fuck, he’d been incredible. Even better than I remembered. And I’d slept so fucking good afterward, too. “I’m not in the business of saying things I don’t mean, Trinity.”
I huffed. “Being yours doesn’t mean you have to support me, Jimmie.”
He grunted. “Until things are back to normal, yeah, it does.”
“I’m not in the business of having a man pay for me,” I said, using his words against him.
He snorted, and when I looked up at him, his eyes were glimmering with amusement. “If it bothers you that much, you can always repay me in other ways.” He waggled his brows at me for good measure.
I laughed and smacked his stomach, making him grunt. “Woooow.”
He chuckled and dropped a kiss to the top of my head. “Too much?”
I couldn’t help but smile. “Just a bit, yeah.”
He hummed and tightened his arm around me. “It got you to smile.”
Yeah… it did. Fuck, I should have never friend-zoned this man. He was the only man capable of making me smile when it felt like my entire life was falling apart. How had I ever once thought we weren’t fucking inevitable?
Chapter Thirteen
Trinity
My hand shook as I did a Google search for the police department back home. Or back where Zac lived. I couldn’t really consider that city home any longer. Zac had ruined it for me. Now, it was a place tainted by what he’d done to me, and I wasn’t sure if I could ever return. At least, not willingly.
I’d probably have to return to testify against Zac in court, but I didn’t want to focus on that right then. At that moment, I just needed to focus on getting through this phone call with the officer in charge of my case to get the ball rolling on pressing charges.
“You’ve got this, baby,” Jimmie soothed, his hand smoothing down my spine. “I’m right here. All you have to do is tell the officer you want to press charges. That’s it.”
“That’s a lot easier said than done,” I croaked. Because making this phone call somehow felt like I was putting Zac right there in the room with us, and it was making me sick to my stomach. “I might puke,” I confessed.
“If you do, I’ll clean it up,” Jimmie promised, not a hint of teasing in his tone. But still, my lips tilted up just the tiniest bit at the corners. He clearly hadn’t meant to be funny, but it was amusing anyway. And it was the little bit of lifting up I needed for me to press the green icon on my screen that would set this whole thing into motion.
Jimmie grabbed my hand in his, lacing our fingers together as the phone began to ring. Then suddenly, the ringing stopped, and a female answered, “Wilkes County Sheriff’s Office. This is Tansy speaking. How can I help you?”
“Um, hi,” I croaked, hating how rough my voice sounded. But there wasn’t anything I could do about it. “I need to speak with Officer Wilcox. He’s in charge of my case.”
“Sure, honey. Hold one moment. You caught him just as he was getting ready to head out.”
My hand was sweating inside of Jimmie’s, but he didn’t seem to care. When my hand began to tremble, he just tightened his hold and rubbed his thumb over my knuckles, soothing me in a way only he’d ever been capable of doing.
“This is Officer Wilcox,” the officer who’d taken my statement the other night answered, ending the music that’d been playing over the line.
“Officer Wilcox, this is Trinity Lennon.” I roughly cleared my throat. “I spoke to you a couple of nights ago about my ex-fiancé r-r—” I couldn’t get the fucking word out— “sexually assaulting me,” I finally managed to spit out instead.
“Oh, Miss Lennon, hello. I hope you’re doing okay. Are you safe?”
“I’m safe,” I assured him. “My son’s father came and got me and my son and brought us home with him.”
“Good, good. What can I do for you?” I heard a chair creak in the background and a drawer shut.
“I…” I blew out a harsh breath, and my knee began to bounce. I was definitely going to throw up once this phone call was over. I’d never dealt with anything so stressful in my fucking life. Even telling my parents I was pregnant was easier than this, and they’d fucking kicked me out, leaving me homeless and afraid for my future. “I’d like to press charges against Zachary Vale.”