Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 98643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 395(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 395(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
“Louis, go home,” I said.
“Yeah, um, no, I gotta tell you something…”
The man’s slurred words were drowned out by the sound of sirens. “Louis, what’s happened? Are you okay?” The cab I’d put Louis in had been heading away from where we’d seen the helicopter and heard all the rescue vehicles.
“You saw it too, right?” I heard Louis say, though it sounded like he was talking to someone else. “Ernie saw it too… what? Oh, sorry, Eddie. Eddie saw it too.”
“Louis, tell Eddie you’ll give him an extra hundred bucks if he takes you straight home right now.” There was more talking between Louis and the cabbie but I couldn’t make out what they were saying. Just as Louis began talking to me again, lights began shining in and out of the windows surrounding the floor I was on. The sirens were so loud that all I managed to hear Louis say was “in your lobby” and then the call disconnected.
What the hell?
I got back on the elevator and hit the lobby button. It wasn’t until the elevator stopped on the bottom floor that I realized I had no clue what Louis had supposedly seen in my lobby, just like I didn’t know why the sirens and helicopter seemed to be surrounding my building now. It occurred to me that I could be dealing with some kind of gunman who was on the run and since my lobby doors weren’t locked yet, he’d taken refuge in my building. I pressed the button for my floor repeatedly in the hope that the elevator door would get the message and not open the door to let me off on the bottom floor like it was supposed to.
So much for Christmas wishes.
The elevator did open, but when I saw what was standing in front of the security desk that was unmanned because of the holiday, I stood frozen where I was. “No,” I cried out as the door began to close so the elevator could take me back up. I managed to stick my arm in the door before it fully closed. Thankfully, it opened again and I had the sense to step out of it. From there, I couldn’t move because I was in a state of complete shock. My phone rang again. I was so distracted that I answered it without thinking.
With a much clearer connection, Louis yelled, “I swear on all that is holy and good, I just saw a horse walk into the building.”
I didn’t respond to Louis because my heart was in my throat.
I had to be hallucinating. There was no way BJ and Flynn were standing less than half a dozen yards from me. It just wasn’t possible.
BJ nickered and bobbed his head. The big animal shook his entire body, spraying snow everywhere.
I wasn’t sure what was worse, the fact that I might be hallucinating or the knowledge that I wasn’t. Based on the rage in Flynn’s eyes and the way he held himself, I kind of wanted it to be the hallucination scenario, but the knowledge that he was alive and well overruled everything else.
“Flynn…” I began but then stopped. What the hell was I supposed to say? Ask him what he was doing there? The answer was obvious. One look in his icy eyes told me everything I needed to know.
Maybe if Flynn hadn’t looked so enraged, I would have been excited to see him, but all I was filled with was dread. I’d taken the coward’s way out and run from him without any kind of explanation. He probably no longer cared why I’d done it, but he still wanted his pound of flesh.
And he had every right to.
As afraid as I was of hearing how much Flynn hated me, if that was what it took to ease even an ounce of the pain I’d inflicted upon him, I’d take any and every cruel word he had to say to me because he deserved at least that. In my gut, I knew Flynn wouldn’t hurt me physically because that wasn’t who he was. He was the guy who laughed, who teased, who gave, who protected. He’d only ever hurt someone to protect someone or something else.
Now I was just like one of those thugs from the alley in Eden and Flynn was protecting himself from me.
I wiped my eyes with my shirtsleeve. I’d divested myself of the suitcoat I’d been wearing at the first opportunity, but even now, I didn’t feel like myself. Especially now that I was in Flynn’s presence. Even as I drank in the sight of him, I could tell that he’d lost a significant amount of weight. His normally tanned skin was ashen and his beard was long and unkempt. The skin beneath his eyes was nearly black from lack of sleep and his clothes were dirty and looked a couple sizes too big. Despite the fact that he was almost unrecognizable, he was still the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.