Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 70417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Skylar had assured me, when I asked, that the pills had been in the bowls only—she’d added the soup over the pills. I knew she had to be telling the truth since she had eaten soup when we did and she had been fine.
I set a bowl in front of her. “Eat.”
She didn’t say anything, only picked up her spoon and did as instructed. As a precaution, I waited a few minutes, making sure she was really eating before I started. I saw her eyes fall to the gun on the table, and I tapped the handle.
“I get dizzy, and I’ll shoot you in the foot to stop you running again.”
Her spoon hovered in midair as she stared at me, her eyes wary.
“Would you?” she whispered.
No, I wouldn’t. But I didn’t tell her that.
I shrugged. “I’ll do whatever it takes to make you safe.”
“Shooting me will make me safe? Your thinking’s a little messed up, fuckwit.”
I bit back my smile.
Ms. Mouthy was coming back.
“Drugs are bad for your brain.” I smirked at her. “Haven’t you ever heard the expression, ‘Just say no to drugs’?”
Her cheeks reddened, and I winked at her. I wanted her to smile.
She rolled her eyes and kept eating.
I ate two bowls of her delicious, drug-free, soup. Then I pushed the bowl away, knowing I should really save some for Sean.
If he’d eat it again.
“That was really good,” I praised her quietly.
“Thanks.”
“Did you cook a lot at home?”
She looked up, her eyes sad. “Yes. My dad liked my cooking.”
“Tell me about your dad.”
“He was a great guy.”
“He must have been to have a daughter like you.”
Her bottom lip quivered a little. “I loved him.”
“When did he die?”
“Almost a year ago.”
“You’ve been on the streets ever since?”
“No, for about six months.”
“Tell me, Skylar. Tell me your story.”
“My mom and dad divorced when I was young. I lived with my mom most of my life, but my dad was still involved. I saw him on holidays and the summer. He always remembered my birthday, and he called a lot, just to check in.”
“Did you have a good relationship with your mom?”
She shrugged. “We were close, but we were more like friends than mom and daughter. She was always forgetting to pay the bills or pick me up from school, buy groceries, that sort of thing. I had to grow up fast and be the responsible one. When I was sixteen, she got remarried. I didn’t like her husband, Jack, or the lifestyle, and I decided to go live with my dad for a while.”
“Lifestyle?”
She wrinkled her nose. “He was much younger than she was, and he was in a band. She followed him around. She kept pulling me out of school, and we’d stay in these awful places. I hated it, so I called my dad and asked if I could come there to live, and he said yes.”
“How did that work for you?”
Her eyes became soft. “It was good. I had to repeat a grade because my mom had moved around so much the last year, I kept getting behind. I was older than most of the kids, so I pretty much stuck to myself. But Dad was great. He was quiet but a good parent. He tried, anyway. He lived in a really small town and his house was on the outskirts, so we were pretty isolated, but I liked it. It was just me most of the time, but I was okay with that. He worked a lot.” She drew in a deep breath, slowly exhaling. “Once I caught up and I graduated, I went to work to save up money for college.”
I was surprised. The way she described her father, I was certain he would have been saving money for a college fund for her. “Your dad couldn’t…help you with that?”
Her lips tightened, and she curled her hand into a small fist on the table. “He’d been sending Mom money all the years I was with her. He’d set up an account when I was born, and she’d add whatever he sent. She told me once she hoped she could add to it eventually as well. I remember seeing the bank book one day, knowing that the money in it would let me go to college. But…”
“But?”
“She spent it.”
“Fuck.” I breathed. “All of it?”
“She gave it to Jack to record a demo and pay for some other stuff she said they had to have. She told me she planned on replacing it as soon as Jack got his first record deal,” she sneered. “She thought it was a good investment in my future. She even planned on adding interest.”
“Oh fuck,” I repeated.
“Yeah. Dad…he wasn’t happy when he found out. It caused a huge blowup with them.” She sighed. “He even threatened to sue her. It got really ugly.” She stopped speaking for a minute, swallowing a couple of times. “Not long after, Mom and Jack were in a car accident on the way to one of his gigs.”