Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 33444 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 167(@200wpm)___ 134(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33444 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 167(@200wpm)___ 134(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
Immediately, Blossom’s features grew alarmed. “Dorothy? I’m sorry if we said something to make you uncomfortable. The men here aren’t bad. Not by a long shot.”
“I’m fine.” I was lying through my teeth.
Iris watched me carefully before shaking her head slowly. “I don’t think you’re fine at all. What do you need? Do you want us to leave?”
“No. Yes. I don’t…”
“It’s all right,” Blossom said. “You don’t have to know. Do you want Morgue? Or Stitches?”
“Alone,” I gasped. “I want to be…”
“OK. We’re leaving,” Blossom said, rising slowly. “If you need us or anyone else, just go to the common room. Anyone you see can help you find it, but it’s really just at the end of the hall and around the corner.”
Sparkle whined and licked at my ankle which, oddly, helped lessen the oppression in the room. I felt like I could breathe easier. I sat back in a nearby chair and Sparkle laid her chin on my knee and looked up at me with a forlorn expression. Like I’d hurt her very last feeling.
I couldn’t help it. There was no way I was not accepting the puppy’s affection. I sighed, and petted the dog’s head, running my hand over and over her head and down her ears once more. She still whined a little, scooting closer and closer to me until, the next thing I knew, she’d climbed up in my lap and laid her head on my arm like a child.
“Well. That’s new,” Blossom said with a grin. “She’s usually only that way with me. And only when Walker does something to piss me off. Most of the time, she’s content to lay against me or beside me. When she crawls up in my lap like that, though, she knows I’m feeling it and need some love.”
“I didn’t mean for her to --”
“No! Not a word. This is what Sparkle does. She’s empathetic to the point she has to fix whatever’s wrong. The only way she knows how to do that is to love or fight. And there’s no one here for her to fight so… Love it is.”
“She’s helping.” I tried to smile but was sure it was a little strained. “Things… were bad where the others found me. I have no idea how long I was there or exactly what they did to me, but I was lured there. By people I thought were my friends.”
“It’s all right.” Iris looked as reassuring as she could given the circumstances. “When someone you’ve trusted betrays you, it makes it hard to trust strangers.”
Shock pulsed through me as I looked at her. “You really do know. Don’t you?” There was something in her expression that said she did. It wasn’t hurt so much as fury.
“Before Sting brought me here, me and my sister, Jerrica, were in a group home.” She gave me a tight smile. “An orphanage. Our parents were dead. We had no family except each other. When I turned sixteen, I got an emergency emancipation, hoping to give myself a couple of years so I could adopt Jerrica out of the home. A little over a year later, I took Jerrica to a Christmas party at a club in Lake Worth, Florida, called Black Reign MC. They always have a huge community Christmas party and make sure all the group homes in the area are there every day they can be until Christmas. Lasts pretty much the whole month of December.” She smiled like she was remembering a particularly special moment before continuing.
“Anyway, the night of the actual Christmas party, when I took Jerrica back, they said they adopted her out. That they didn’t tell me or her it was going to happen so there was less drama or something. When I came back the next day -- I was there every day, no matter what -- they told me she was gone. They said she’d been adopted. In reality, they’d sold her to a trafficking ring.”
“Oh, my God! No!”
“Seems hard to believe, I know. I ran back to the only place I could think of to help. Black Reign. Sting was there because he needed to talk to Warlock. Warlock is Sting’s father. He’d resigned as Iron Tzars’ president and Black Reign wanted him at their club.” She waved her hand dismissively. “Not important. Sting was there when I came running to the compound. He heard my tale and offered to help. El Diablo, the president of Black Reign, accepted the offer, and they rescued Jerrica and all the other children who’d been sold from the group home.”
“What you’re saying is, the men here are good guys.”
“Yes, but mostly I’m saying I understand why you’d find it hard to trust people you don’t know. Especially after being betrayed by people you did know.”
“Thanks, Iris.” I swallowed a lump in my throat. “Everyone here has been nothing but good to me.” I tried to chuckle. “Except for the catheter. Stitches did it because I needed it, I suppose. Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”