Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 60848 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 304(@200wpm)___ 243(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60848 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 304(@200wpm)___ 243(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
“I don’t know either,” I admitted with a grin. “But I’ll spend every day trying to be worthy of her acceptance.” I squeezed her hand gently. “Of all three of you.”
Penny leaned forward, resting her head against my chest. I pulled Penny onto my lap and wrapped my arms around her. I wasn’t sure if she’d let me, but she not only went willingly, she wound her arms around my neck and actually snuggled close.
Whatever came next, I was ready. I’d faced down some of the worst of the worst in prison, survived fifteen years in a hellhole. I never thought there was anything I could encounter that would rattle me. But nothing had prepared me for the fierce, protective love I felt for this woman and her daughters. And yeah. I was ready to call it love. I’d loved my sister. So Goddamned much. It was nothing compared to the emotional tie I was developing for Penny and her daughters. Nothing had prepared me for the weight of their trust, or the determination I felt to be worthy of it.
I held Penny a little tighter, silently renewing my vow to her, meaning it with every breath in my body from now until the day I died. Everything I have. Everything I am. It’s all yours now.
Chapter Seven
Penny
I awoke with the memory of Tiny’s arms around me, the echo of his promise still humming through my veins. For the first time in years, I fell asleep without lying awake listening for footsteps in the hall. One night of actual rest had left me feeling different, somehow lighter, as if an invisible weight had shifted on my shoulders. The girls had sensed it too, Zelda watching me with curious eyes over breakfast, Kira actually humming as she brushed her teeth. We had changed, all of us, by the simple act of being believed. Of someone actually giving a damn about what happened to us.
The morning had started like any other at Haven. Violet had brought in fresh bagels from the bakery down the street. Kira sat cross-legged on the floor sorting through a box of art supplies while Zelda sat with another resident’s child and helped the young girl with a coloring page, encouraging her to color outside the lines because that’s what rebels do.
A soft, chiming alarm sounded. At first, I didn’t think much other than to wonder what the noise was. I honestly thought someone had set an alarm on their phone or something.
But it didn’t stop. It didn’t take long before the few people in the common room were looking around trying to figure out what was going on.
“Mom?” Zelda urged her sister from where they now played a video game. Apparently, the young girl had lost interest and gone to her mother. Both girls hurried to me.
“It’s OK.” I smiled, trying to reassure them, pulling them both in for a hug. “It’s just an alarm. Probably nothing.”
Violet entered through the back, probably from the rear entrance. They kept the door locked and on a swipe card entry, but no one but residents and staff used that door. She had her phone pressed to her ear, her other hand gesturing urgently for everyone to move back the way she came. Which meant that back door. They were sending us outside?
Her voice was steady but strained as she spoke. “Yes. I’m moving everyone there now.” Her eyes met mine across the room, and something in her expression made my stomach clench.
There were only two other women and one toddler besides me and the girls. Violet helped the three of them out as I followed with Zelda and Kira. Everyone else had either found a safe, permanent home or their abusers had been arrested. Or were otherwise out of the picture. Which I didn’t ask too closely about lest I be tempted to ask for something I wasn’t willing to have anyone here pay.
The doorway darkened as Tiny’s massive frame filled it. My heart stuttered, relief and fear tangling together at the sight of him. His gaze found mine immediately, as if pulled by some invisible tether. The steady calm in his gaze anchored me even as the alarm continued its assault. If I hadn’t known before this moment how much I needed and wanted Tiny in our lives, I knew it now.
“We need to evacuate,” he murmured as he urged us to follow Violet. “Knight traced a bomb threat to a burner phone. He did some computer shit to find where the phone was when the call was made. Did more computer shit and found Andrew Harlow on a security camera within five meters of where Knight pinged that cell. Could be nothing, but we’re not taking chances.”
“Oh, God.” I glanced down at the girls, but they held hands as Zelda urged Kira after Violet. I snagged our coats before turning to look at Tiny. I was sure my eyes were wide with shock.