Total pages in book: 37
Estimated words: 35207 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 176(@200wpm)___ 141(@250wpm)___ 117(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35207 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 176(@200wpm)___ 141(@250wpm)___ 117(@300wpm)
“You ready?”
“We’re going to live in a castle,” he informs Eden.
“Does that make you a prince?”
He scrunches his little nose, looking to me for the answer.
“Of course.” I open the back door for him.
“Princes get horses.” He’s become obsessed with horses over the past few months. I haven’t told him that there are some on the property where we are going. I want him to be surprised.
“We’ll have to see about that.” I smile, just happy he's on board with this.
“Call me when you get there.” Eden pulls me in for another hug.
“It’s not that far. I’ll be back.” I laugh. She kisses me on the cheek. I toss my purse into the passenger seat on top of one of the boxes. I can’t believe everything Colby and I own fit in the car. Tina said our living area would be furnished. All we really needed were the essentials, clothes and a few boxes of toys for Colby. I didn't want my mom saying I’d stolen from her or something crazy. When she runs out of money she’ll come back.
I look in the rearview mirror and watch Colby slide his sunglasses on. I grab my matching pair off the dashboard and put them on too.
“All right, autobots.” I look back at Colby.
“Roll out,” he says as I put the car into drive—hoping this road in front of us is a whole lot easier than the last.
3
Kale
A kid? Am I seeing that right? I rub my eyes and readjust the binoculars, but no matter how fuzzy or how clear the image, it is still a kid. I didn’t see the snot-nosed terror in the store, but I guess that makes sense since I only really saw the woman from the waist up. The checkout counter was blocking the rest of it—and the kid.
I toss the binoculars onto the bed and pick up my phone. Tina’s not going to answer when she sees it's me, so I vent my frustration in a text.
Me: theres a mtrfcking kid in my driveway
Tina: carport! how many times do I have to tell you it’s carport. Old Man Winchester’s place is wasted on you. It’s so nice and grand and you live in a tiny wing shut up in the corner of the house.
Clearly, texting my sister is a mistake. I throw down the phone and grab the binoculars again. The woman has a box in her arms and is marching toward the side door. When she gets to the door, she realizes she can’t ring the doorbell and hold the box at the same time. She jerks her head toward the sunglasses-wearing kid. They appear to be talking. I turn the audio on.
“Colby honey, can you come and ring the doorbell?”
“Where is it?”
“Should be a button next to the door.”
“I don’t see anything. Wait. There’s a black pad here. Do you think that is it?”
“Could be. Why don’t you try it?”
Colby presses a hand against the panel.
“There’s an intruder at the door,” intones the security system in the sickly sweet voice of Catriona, as it likes to be called.
“Gee, really, I can’t tell,” I bite out. One of these days, I’m going to get rid of that voice and get a robotic one like it should be. That’s the natural order of things. Robots should sound like robots and humans should sound like humans.
“There’s an intruder at the door,” the stupid thing repeats.
I open my phone app and turn off the alarm notifications. I can see what’s going on. I don’t need the robot to narrate this for me.
“It’s not working, Summer,” the boy says.
Summer. I can’t believe that’s her name and that she’s wearing a ridiculous floral dress that reveals more than it conceals. It clings to her frame in a way that should be illegal, showing off her voluptuous, curvy body. Who in the hell decided that it was okay to sell a dress like this? Someone who is a sadist obviously because that dress is designed to drive a man out of his fucking mind.
My cock jumps excitedly. “You dumb fuck, stay down,” I order. “You aren’t getting any action except from my hand so you might as well deflate. That woman isn’t coming near us.”
If she was uglier, maybe I’d be able to pay her enough to ride my cock.
A housekeeper can’t be running around in floaty dresses and floral headbands. I make a note to order a uniform—gray and drab with the thick white nursing shoes to match because those are ugly as sin. I should make her wear a cap, too. One of those white mushroom shaped caps that old women in movies wear. I wonder if I could make her wear a gray wig, too.
“Maybe it’s on the other side?” Summer shifts and the box slips.
I slam my hand down on the speaker and bark out a command. “Put that damn thing down before you drop it.”