Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 79360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
I gestured to the kids that were still holding their signs, and he sighed.
“My kids ever acted like that, I’d beat the shit out of them,” he murmured. “I’d pull them away by their ears, run over all their electronics with a lawn mower like I saw some guy do to his kid on YouTube, and then force them to watch me burn it. Then I’d put the fire out by pissing on it.”
I snorted.
“Duly noted.”
“I was going to try to watch the funeral procession from here, but I can’t see a damn thing,” Brady grumbled. “Do you think they’ll move and allow me to leave? If I can get out, I can park at the top of my street and watch from there.”
Sean grunted. “I’ll make sure of it.”
And he did.
Five minutes later, he was pushing the crowd back with only a glare, and Brady waved. “See you tomorrow, Naomi.”
I waved and watched until his taillights disappeared around a bend in the road, and then turned toward Sean.
“Ready to go?”
His eyes went to the protesters and then to the remains of the burned flag.
Taking two long steps toward it, he snatched up the flag from the ground where it lay like a piece of trash instead of this nation’s symbol, and then gestured to the bike.
“Get on. Let’s go.”
I got on, and we went.
I was putting my helmet on as he pulled past them, and not one of the protesters made eye contact with either of us.
And the whole time I hugged Sean tight.
I was proud of him.
He could’ve allowed that situation to get out of hand instead of using his head.
But he didn’t.
“Why are they being so calm now?” I yelled over the motor. “That easily could have gone the other way.”
He stopped at the stop light just past the protesters and turned his head so I could hear him.
Sean shrugged. “Most protesters are generally non-confrontational. Likely, there was only one loser who wanted to burn that flag, and he did. The others didn’t participate in it, but they either condoned it by not stopping him or were too stunned by him doing it to do anything about it.”
That made sense. I, on the other hand, would like to think that the country I was currently living in wasn’t made up of a bunch of spineless people who wouldn’t take a stand against something that they knew was wrong.
Sean’s hand clamped onto my wrist, and then the light turned green.
His hand lifted, and he waved at a biker who looked vaguely familiar across traffic, yet I couldn’t quite place him.
Though, he did that to every motorcycle that passed, so it wasn’t an indication that he actually knew the other man.
I swiveled my head so I could watch as the biker turned behind us.
He was wearing a leather jacket, black jeans, and black boots. His shirt, however, was blue. Though, it appeared black in some places due to what I assumed were grease stains.
I’d seen the man before. Actually, I’d seen him a lot.
That long silver hair of his was pretty distinctive.
I squeezed Sean tighter, and his large hand covered mine for a half an instant before he returned it to the handlebars.
I lifted my head to rest on his shoulder, allowing my helmet to lean against his head, and stared ahead of us.
The biker passed us, but I kept my head forward, staring straight ahead, and didn’t allow myself to turn and study the man.
I didn’t want to see him staring, because that would only give me an even greater sense of foreboding than I already had.
Almost as fast as he’d passed us, he started slowing down.
I saw Brady, out of his car, eyes on the road behind him rather than on us, but I waved at his back anyway.
The biker that Sean waved to turned down the road that Brady was parked on, and my brows furrowed in contemplation.
Maybe that was why I saw him so much, because he lived on Brady’s street.
As we rode further away, I realized that I’d been making a bigger deal of it than I should have. If the man lived on Brady’s street, then I’d have seen him a lot. Brady and I had gotten thick as thieves since we’d met.
Something in my gut loosened at the knowledge that I wasn’t being followed by some random scary, greasy biker dude. And I started to enjoy my ride.
Though, even when my mind was racing about some fake stalker that I’d made up, I’d been pasted up against a sexy man’s back, so it hadn’t been that bad.
Sean took the long way home, looping around the entire town on back roads, allowing me the time to breathe easy.
Rides on the back of Sean’s bike were the best.
Rides where Sean wasn’t wearing his cut—which allowed me to feel his spectacular muscles and nothing else but a sweaty t-shirt in between us—were even better.