Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 73398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
That’s when I arrived.
I wouldn’t say that I was the fastest one in the bunch, but the adrenaline coursing through my system paired with my desire to make sure that Cora was safe had me moving faster than every man there.
I arrived just in time to catch one of the men by the collar and yank him back.
Cora took care of the other by stabbing him with a screwdriver straight through his throat.
“Holy shit,” I breathed, watching as the guy clutched the screwdriver.
“I wouldn’t pull that out if I were you,” Cora said conversationally. “It’s likely very close to your carotid. You wouldn’t want to accidentally nick that bad boy.”
Gabe, who arrived just in time to hear that comment, started to chuckle.
“Why is it that you always find yourself in trouble?” Gabe inquired.
“It’s not my fault, Dad,” Cora explained defensively, taking a step away from the man who was trying very hard not to rip that screwdriver out. “I was just minding my own business, looking for something at Coke’s place, when these men came out of the woodwork thinking I was Coke’s daughter.”
My brows rose as confusion swept through me. “You were at my place? And what about my daughter?”
She shrugged. “Kind of. I hadn’t fully made it all the way to your house yet when I saw them. I ran through the garage and knocked a few of your tools down on the ground, then slipped out the back door and hauled ass back to my place, but I didn’t make it. And yes, your daughter. They thought I was Frankie.”
She gestured to the men at her feet.
The one I’d dispatched by throwing him into a wall was unconscious, but the other two were very aware of how much trouble they’d found themselves in.
My heart started to pound as I reached for my phone, wanting to know if my daughter was okay.
“I called the PD. Since I wasn’t sure what town we were in exactly, I called both Jefferson and Hostel,” Sam added. “You doing okay, beautiful?”
Cora gave him a thumbs up, then took a wide arc to get around the prone men.
Frankie answered in two rings, but she was whispering. “Dad, I’m literally about to walk into a placement test that’ll take me like four hours to do…can I call you back?”
“Yes,” I said. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, Dad. But the armed security guy that’s gathering up cell phones is glaring at me, so I gotta go. Love ya.”
Then she hung up before I could so much as reply.
Something inside of me seemed to loosen, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
The test she was talking about was at the city hall of all places. She was taking a placement test that was supposed to tell her what she should do with her life and had explained to me that it was sort of like the ASVAB—the placement test that the military used. Though this one was supposed to highlight certain areas that she excelled at, and places that she didn’t, so that she could be paired with jobs that she might be good at.
It was a complicated process, and as she’d explained in her phone call, it was also one that was held at city hall and to get into city hall you had to first pass through a metal detector and give up all your belongings so you couldn’t cheat.
Meaning she was safe for now.
“Fuck.” I sighed.
“She’s okay?”
I nodded at Cora’s quiet question as she headed in my direction. “She’s fine. About to take that placement test.”
She was safe. For now.
The four-hour test would give me time to either get up there or question these little shit heads to figure out my next course of action.
Cora stopped at my side, offered me up a small smile, and then kept walking until she was out in the dark parking lot.
When none of the men that came with her father went to make a move to follow, I sighed.
What the hell was wrong with these people? She was literally just kidnapped, and they acted like they weren’t concerned about her at all.
I followed Cora to a drink machine and stopped just short of being right on top of her. My chest brushed her arm.
“Do you have a dollar?”
I took my wallet out, fished out a dollar, and handed it to her.
She thanked me and then put it into the machine, moments later getting a Dr. Pepper in return for my dollar.
“I’ve had a really bad day,” she said, sounding much more tired than she looked. “I was coming over to tell you that I was sorry that I made you feel bad, that it was just one of those things that happens with my fucked-up moods. I wanted to tell you that you were annoying me, when those men surprised me. I turned and ran, making it to my front door before they caught up with me. Which reminds me, I need to stop eating so bad, and I seriously gotta work on my endurance.”