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)
“I s-saw him. With the b-body.” She cleared her throat again.
Okay, he was about to lose his everloving mind. If she didn’t tell him what was going on right away, his head was going to explode.
Ralen shot him a warning look.
Yeah, he knew that getting angry wasn’t going to help. Cash had a bit of a temper. There was no denying it. And Addie was the sort of girl who would clam up if someone was angry at her.
Plus, it would make him feel like a jerk to get angry at someone like her.
“Who did you see with a body, Addie?” Ralen asked.
“Man with the mean eyes.”
Yep, Cash was about to lose it. What the fuck had she seen?
“The man with the mean eyes,” Ralen repeated. “Sorry, Bat girly, but you’re going to have to give us more than that. We don’t know who you mean.”
“I don’t know who it was. I j-just saw a man w-with a body.” She started to cough.
“Oh, shit. Here, I got you a bottle of water,” Ralen told her. “And an electrolyte drink. And a bag of candy.”
“A bag of candy?” Cash asked.
“Yeah, I thought she might need the sugar rush. She just puked after being in a bar brawl, losing her sisters, hiding in a stranger’s pickup, and seeing her hotel room trashed with that message. And now she just got into a fight, got smacked in the face, and hit some asshole with a crowbar. Girl deserves some sugar.”
Yeah. Ralen wasn’t wrong. She did.
Wait . . .
“Who the fuck hit you?”
10
Addie didn’t know Cash very well, but she got the feeling that he was angry.
He had pulled his truck over and was now holding her chin while he stared down at her face, where that guy had smacked her. And there was a weird twitch going on next to his right eye.
“Who the fuck hit you?” he repeated angrily.
She gaped at him, her mouth slightly open. Why was he so mad? It wasn’t her fault. He’d been fighting off three guys at the same time. Thankfully, Raven had helped her before it had gotten any worse.
“Some big dude snuck up on her,” Ralen said.
“He fucking what?”
Cash seemed to be having trouble understanding what had happened.
She took a sip of water, trying to clear her dry throat. This is what anxiety did to her. It dried up her throat, making it feel like it was going to close. Although it didn’t usually hurt like this.
“Addie?” he pressed.
“It was the driver,” she said. “G-grabbed me. I h-hit him with a r-rock.”
“I’m going to go back and fucking kill that bastard.”
He wasn’t being serious, right? That was just something that people said. Only the look on his face seemed very serious.
She shook her head.
“Nobody touches you, Addie. Nobody.”
Why did he even care? He hardly knew her.
“I knocked him out, dude. And they’re likely gone by now. We need to keep going.”
Cash turned the truck around and sped back to where they’d left those other guys. She clenched her hands together, feeling herself shake with fear.
“Cash, you’re scaring Addie,” Ralen warned.
“I’m going to make sure that bastard knows that touching her is the last thing he’s ever going to do.”
Dear Lord.
Thankfully, when they got back to the spot, all of them were gone, just like Ralen had said.
“I could say, I told you so,” Ralen sang. “Actually, I am going to say, I told you so, you deaf bastard.”
Cash hit the steering wheel with the palms of his hands. Addie squeaked and jolted back against Ralen. The other man wrapped his arm around her.
“Cash, calm yourself. You’re really scaring her.”
Cash turned toward her, and she let out another scared noise, pressing herself even closer to Ralen. Something like regret instantly filled his face.
“Fuck, shit. Fuck, shit, fuck. Fuck, shit, fucking shit.”
Okay, that was a lot of swearing. She was breathing heavily as she stared at him. He reached a hand up to run it over his short, dark hair.
“Fuck, Addie. I’m sorry. I just got mad when I saw that he’d touched you. I’m mad at myself for not keeping you safe. I should have handed him the keys to Crystal straight away and let him take her. Instead of being an arrogant ass, thinking I could take on all of them at once, without any harm coming to you. It’s been a long time since I had someone to protect.”
She wasn’t his to protect. But it seemed that these guys felt some obligation to help her.
As weird as that was.
Anyway, he shouldn’t feel bad about the fact that she’d gotten hurt. Plus, if he’d given those guys the keys to his pickup, they could’ve still attacked them.
Cash ran his hand over his face. They were all tired and needed some sleep. She placed her hand over his on the steering wheel and squeezed it slightly. Then she gave him a tremulous smile.