Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 71625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 358(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 358(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
“I can’t say that I’m surprised by the fact that he kept this from me,” Winnie admitted.
“Me either,” I grumbled. “Me either.”
The sliding glass doors opening had us all turning to look.
It’d been a little over twenty minutes since we’d exited the hospital, and apparently, that was enough time for Anderson Munnick to realize that he wasn’t getting the attention that he required.
“Sir!” A nurse followed him out. “You can’t leave. If you leave, you’ll be AMA—against medical advice—and won’t be readmitted.”
Anderson scoffed. “Like I care.”
“You’ll be flagged,” Winnie said. “When you leave AMA, they don’t like that. You’ll be labeled as a dumbass and they won’t allow you in unless you’re obviously having an actual emergency that’s visible. You won’t get to just walk in like you did today and get seen.”
Anderson saw Winnie in my arms, and his eyes went wide, while his smile dimmed.
“Is that right?” he asked, coming to a stop about four feet from us, crossing his arms over his chest.
The bad thing was, Anderson Munnick was quite appealing. I could see how women would be attracted to him. Why did he have to rape to get a woman?
And we all knew that he was a rapist.
I’d looked him up once I got back home a few days ago in the police database.
He was charged with only one count of rape but was also suspected of not just a few, but many more. They couldn’t actually pin anything else on him due to lack of evidence in the other cases, and it was only Winnie’s testimony that had tied him to the location of the rape that he was convicted of. Who knew what he’d been doing since he was out.
The automatic doors opened, but I didn’t take my gaze off of Anderson long enough to see who’d come out.
But when I felt the familiar hand of my son on my shoulder, I felt an inner peace that allowed me to calm down.
“Time to leave, buddy.”
“You can’t tell me to leave. I’m standing in a parking lot.”
“Loitering,” I murmured, gesturing to a state police car that was pulling into the lot. “Which I’m sure we can find a way to take you in for. It’ll be fun…how about you continue. Any arrest, even loitering, is a violation of your parole. Which then means you’ll be heading back.”
“They won’t send me back to jail because I was loitering,” Anderson countered.
Aaron pulled up in his cruiser and got out, leaving the door open as he did.
He didn’t say a word, but he didn’t need to. His presence was enough to cause that extra little bit of worry that I needed for Anderson to leave.
Sometimes I hated being a cop.
I hated standing here with my hands tied behind my back. I hated the fact that I couldn’t just walk up to the motherfucker and punch him in the face, threaten his ass to stay away from my woman.
Everything came screeching to a halt inside my mind. My woman?
“Do you want to find out?” Sean asked, stealing the words from my mouth. “Because that’s what is about to happen. Personally, I think you should give it a try. See how it goes.”
There were times when my son was younger that I didn’t appreciate his smart-ass mouth, but now that he was older, I could find the humor in it.
Like now.
“Time to go,” I said. “Either leave or get arrested.”
Anderson sneered at me, my son, and then stopped when his eyes landed on Winnie.
Or more particularly, Winnie’s head.
She wasn’t looking at Anderson. She was looking at the crowd that I could feel gathered behind my back.
My family.
“See you soon, sweet Winnie.”
Winnie ignored him, but I didn’t.
I charged forward, pushing Winnie from my arms, and stopped inches from the little fucker’s face.
“Listen here, Anderson,” I said quietly. “Don’t give me a reason to do this. Don’t. Because you will not win. You might think you will, but you won’t. I’m older, wiser and have a lot more experience in this life shit than you do. Don’t be stupid. Get out of town, stop raping women and live your life. Trust me on this.”
Anderson’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t rape women, Chief. They ask for what I do to them.”
I wanted to plant my fist in the little asshole’s face.
I contained myself. Barely.
“Think on what I said. But get out of here while you do it.”
Chapter 14
Forgive your enemy, but remember the bastard’s name.
-Something you probably shouldn’t say to a five-year-old
Winnie
My eyes took in the two stray dogs that were running on the side of the road, and I kept them there as I tried not to yell at my kid once again.
However, when we pulled into the Dixie Wardens’ clubhouse moments later, my cool had again evaporated.
Conleigh trudged behind us, pissed off that I was forcing her to miss a day with her friends to instead spend it with me, her brother and Steel.