Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 155775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 779(@200wpm)___ 623(@250wpm)___ 519(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 779(@200wpm)___ 623(@250wpm)___ 519(@300wpm)
It was better to know what they actually thought of her.
At least that’s what she told herself, anyway.
6
Just as well she’d left when she had, because Cash turned up a couple of minutes later with a glass of water. He sat on the sofa next to her as she shakily drank some down. Weirdly, hearing all that stuff hadn’t made her less attracted to him.
It was like he held some sort of spell over her, and she couldn’t get free.
“What were you three doing in that bar?” Cash murmured. “It’s not the type of place for three women on their own. Especially a woman like you.”
Hey! What did that mean, a woman like her?
Jeez, first he was talking about how she wasn’t quite right, and now he was implying that a woman like her shouldn’t go to a bar?
Why? Because she was crazy?
He’s probably talking about the fact that you’re scared of your own shadow, you idiot.
Ralen returned with a pad and pen. He stopped as he saw her.
Shoot.
She was rubbing Snaggles’ ear under her nose. He probably thought she was crazy. Addie buried her face in her knees.
You can’t escape this.
You can’t hide.
And you need to find your sisters. So just grow up, Addie!
She waited for their scorn, for them to laugh at her. A twenty-eight-year-old woman, cuddling a soft toy and rubbing it under her nose while hiding in a blanket.
Ridiculous.
Everything about her was ridiculous.
“Right, your phone is charged to twenty percent,” Ralen said. “There are no messages, though.”
Addie raised her head at that. No messages? As soon as Dotty and Monroe were safe they would have messaged her.
Where were they?
Had something happened to them?
Oh God. Oh God.
“Don’t panic, Stowaway,” Cash told her in a low voice. “We’ll find your friends.”
“Sisters,” she croaked.
They both gave her surprised looks. She got it. They probably thought she was mute.
She was kind of shocked herself.
“Sisters?” Cash repeated. “Then they’re going to get in contact, aren’t they? Do you live here? Should we take you home? Do they live with you?”
She shook her head. Too many questions.
“You’re overwhelming her,” Ralen said, handing her phone to her. “Want to try calling them?”
Addie nodded shakily. Grabbing her phone, she tried Dotty first. But it went straight to voicemail. The same happened when she tried to call Monroe.
She bit her lip, trying to think. Just because they weren’t answering their phones didn’t mean anything. The battery could be dead.
Monroe was always forgetting to charge her phone.
But not Dotty.
She brought up their phones on the tracking app. They both showed that they were still at the bar. Turning her phone, she showed Cash.
“They’re still at the bar.” He glanced at Ralen.
Addie nodded and tapped her chest, then pointed at the phone. Yes, she could have written it on the pad, but her brain wasn’t thinking properly at the moment.
Cash shook his head. “Sorry, Stowaway, we’re not going back to that bar.”
All right. That was understandable. She couldn’t expect them to run her around like they were her personal taxi service. So she brought up the Uber app.
Cash placed his hand over her phone screen. “I should have made myself clearer. You’re not going back to that bar.”
Nerves filled her.
All right, maybe her instincts had been off and she shouldn’t have trusted them.
Perhaps she’d thrown herself from the frying pan and into the fire.
Shit.
He could see that he’d terrified her.
Well done, Cash.
He wasn’t really a soft guy, but he had a soft spot for women in trouble.
For Littles in trouble.
Not that he knew for sure that she was a Little, but he had his suspicions.
“I didn’t say that because I plan on keeping you prisoner or whatever else is going on in your brain. But you can’t go back to that bar. It’s not safe there. By now, the cops will be all over it. And even though their phones are showing as being there, it could be that they are dead and it’s pinging their last known location.”
Her shoulders slumped. Defeat filled her face.
“Why don’t we take you home? They might be there,” Ralen said.
She shook her head. She probably didn’t want them to know where she lived.
Cash got it. She was a young woman on her own with two guys.
Two rough, tattooed guys.
She had no idea that neither of them would ever harm her.
“I know you might be scared to show us where you live,” Cash said.
She shook her head. “Hotel.”
Her voice was husky but quiet.
Sexy.
Get that thought out of your mind. She’s alone and vulnerable and you need to take care of her.
Not lust after her.
He was surprised that he was interested in her like that. She wasn’t really his type.
“You’re staying in a hotel?” Ralen asked.
She nodded.
“So you’re not from here?” Cash asked.
She shook her head.
“All right, well, we could take you to your hotel,” he suggested.