Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 77118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
To that, all I managed to do was suck in a greedy breath, then let it all the way out.
“Yeah, I’ve been there,” she said, nodding in a sort of sad, but strong way that made me think that she thought, like Dr. Price had, that I’d been battered. “I know he’s pretty and all, but no man is worth that,” she said. “Trust me. I know.”
“I agree,” I said, nodding. “This is my first time visiting. Can we just leave now?” I asked.
“Pretty much,” she said, grabbing her son’s hand.
“Are you new in town?” I asked since we were walking out together. “Or just visiting?”
“Well, visiting. But I am hoping to move here. Be close to my brother while he’s… here,” she said, looking at the prison with a sad sigh. “But, looking at you, I am getting a little worried,” she admitted.
“Oh, no. Don’t judge Shady Valley on this,” I said, waving at my face. “It’s a good place for kids actually. I grew up here. Rent is really reasonable too since there’s… not much around here,” I said, waving out at the whole of Shady Valley in front of us.
The convenience store, gas station, motel, biker clubhouse, the ‘burbs and the small rich people neighborhood, then the main street in town with a couple of open businesses, but a lot of shuttered ones.
Objectively, I didn’t understand why I was so attached to the place. There wasn’t much entertainment. There were hardly any places to shop. No real opportunities for career growth. At least not until some more businesses opened up.
I couldn’t explain it.
I just felt rooted in Shady Valley.
It felt like the right place for me.
And I was terrified that some unseen shadowy figure was going to force me out of the place I liked calling home.
“We come from a bad area,” the woman said. “My brother and me. I’d like to raise my son somewhere that I don’t have to put him to sleep in the bathtub when the drive-bys get bad again. My brother told me that there’s a doctor in town who could maybe use some help.”
“Are you a nurse?” I asked.
“Yes. But I have been… working for my brother,” she said, and I could tell by the way she said it that she meant she’d likely been stitching up men hurt by getting involved in those drive-bys that made her put her son to bed in the tub.
“You know what? Dr. Price really wouldn’t care about that. He patched me up with very few questions about what happened to me,” I told her, waving at my face. “You should apply. I’m sure he could use the help. He’s always busy.”
“I think I will,” she agreed, giving me a warm smile. “What’s your name?”
“Nyx,” I told her. “You?”
“Clara. And this is Gabriel,” she said, smiling down at her son. I wasn’t good with kids’ ages, but I would put him at maybe four. He was still short and had that stocky build that boys tended to grow out of by the time they were in elementary school.
“It’s nice to meet you guys. I hope to see you again. I work nights at the bar in town if you ever want to talk. About moving here or whatever you want,” I said as I got to my car.
Clara had been the distraction I needed to get me from the table with Czar to my own car without absolutely losing my shit.
But by the time I got in my seat and buckled my seatbelt, I felt myself starting to shake.
See, as much as I’d been mad at and bitter with Czar over the whole situation, some part of me knew that he could be reasoned with if he’d been the one dropping off the drugs, the reason I’d gotten hurt.
He was, after all, just very level-headed.
But if he wasn’t behind the drugs and the attacks on guys I dated and the break-in and attack on me, well, I really had a reason to be freaking out.
If I owed Czar a couple hundred grand, he would have let me work to pay it off.
But some unknown stranger?
I didn’t believe they would be that gracious.
And they clearly had no issue with putting their hands on me.
Which meant it was only going to be worse if or when they figured out that I’d lost their product.
Czar, as much as I hated to admit it, was right.
I needed help.
I couldn’t do this on my own.
And as much as I didn’t want to have to get anyone involved in my problems, I knew there really wasn’t any other choice.
I knew people who would know how to help me.
Who could protect me.
Or, barring that, like Czar said, they could hide me.
My paranoia had me watching my rearview, sure someone was going to follow me, snatch me, take me somewhere and do horrible things to me.