Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 72822 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72822 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
“But,” Dante drawled.
“But that’s all that I could find on him. There’s no case studies or articles or anything on these experimental miracle treatments he supposedly developed. There’s literally nothing out there on him at all.”
The man scowled.
“I’m not going to say that I’m good at finding shit on people, because I’m not. What I’ve found out is by asking people stuff, like I did with you. I don’t have any computer skills what-so-fucking-ever. That’s why I wanted to come talk to these guys. I need to know what the fuck is going on.”
“Because of what you showed me earlier?”
“Yes.”
I didn’t know what to say to that.
“Why now?”
His jaw clenched at my question.
“Honestly?”
I blinked.
“Yes,” I paused. “Why would I ask you a question and not want you to be honest?”
He chuckled.
It was the second time he’d done anything like that in the entire hour that I’d been in the same space as him.
“Tell me about the pictures.”
“What pictures?” the beautiful man that Sam had introduced as Rafe asked.
Dante reached into his pocket, pulled out the jump drive and then slid it across the table.
Rafe immediately reached for it and slid it farther down the table to the man called Jack.
Jack took it, stood up, and walked over to a panel on the wall where he plugged the jump drive in.
“Hope that the data isn’t corrupted,” I muttered mostly to myself.
Dante gave me a look, and I found myself blinking my eyes innocently at him.
He rolled his and turned when a screen descended at the front of the room.
“This is like the future,” I uttered to myself once again.
Jack turned and offered me a smile.
“Not the future,” he said. “Just technology that is advancing every single day.”
I didn’t argue with that, mostly because it was so true.
Every two years, a new iPhone came out, and every two years, I got a new one. The newer models weren’t really all that different from the older ones. At least that’s how it seemed until you compared an older iPhone to your newest one, side-by-side.
Something I’d actually done myself a few weeks ago while I’d been digging through my grandpa’s old desk and found one of my old phones.
The fucker had even turned on and run after I’d charged it. I was purely amazed and sat there for twenty minutes looking at the old pictures. Of course, the pictures were tiny compared to the phone I carried now. Pictures that I’d somehow lost, and smiled for hours as I thought about the things I used to do as a teenager. Camping with my grandparents. Fishing with Grandpa. Cooking with Grandma.
God, there’d been so many freakin’ pictures of pies that I’d had to laugh.
“Tell me where you were when you took these pictures.”
Sam’s comment brought me back to the present, and I stared at the same picture that Dante had shown me earlier.
“Right outside her house.”
“You live there with him?”
Dante shook his head. “This is her old place. She rents it to him.”
I nodded my head, and we explained what had happened again to them.
“At first, I started watching her place, thinking she was living there. When I realized Drake was there, I’d intended to leave it alone, not wanting to draw attention to myself. But then I started noticing strange things, and I couldn’t help myself.”
“See that number, Sam?”
Max’s question had me straining my eyes to see where Max was pointing.
“No. Where?”
“That one.”
A red laser light appeared where a hazy gray number was on one of the bottom boxes, and I strained to see it even more.
“What is i…” I turned my head at the same time as I spoke and stopped when I saw Max, a gun in his hand, aiming it at the screen.
My mouth fell open.
His eyes met mine, and he saw the way they were nearly popping out of my head, and then looked kind of sheepish.
“Fancy laser pointer you have there,” I mused as he put the gun back in someplace behind his back.
Hmmm. I hadn’t realized he was armed.
Imagine that.
“Sorry,” he snorted. “Seemed easier than getting up. My knee fucking hurts.”
“Everything always hurts,” Jack agreed, retaking his seat.
These men were all older. Late forties, early fifties, I’d guess.
But, don’t think for a second that these men weren’t handsome as hell, or that they were any less dangerous than a younger man at his prime.
Nope, I’d been around my fair share of military men in my time. In fact, I’d been a member of the LTWC—Longview Texas Welcoming Committee—since I was a kid. Twelve at the most.
See, it all started when I realized how alone I really was in the world. Yes, I had grandparents, but they were literally all I had.
Which got me to thinking about other men and women who didn’t have even what I had.
Then, one time I’d heard about a soldier coming home, and a welcoming committee was needed for him since he didn’t have any family. So, I’d begged my grandmother to take me to Dallas, and together we’d welcomed home this young soldier from war. It was so satisfying seeing his smile directed toward us that I’d been doing it ever since.