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)
Everything in the house had been organically grown vegetables and fruit. Her mother had fed her rice and beans for most meals. She also hadn’t liked to eat meat, not trusting where it had come from, and whether anything had been injected into it.
Thankfully, Addie had been allowed things like cheese and milk and homemade bread that her mother would make with a sugar substitute.
Until she’d become too ill to make anything and Addie had to start fending for herself.
Greer turned the sketch around, and Addie stared at it in amazement. It was so good. She couldn’t believe it. It was almost like she’d reached into her mind and drawn the image that she’d found there.
“Wow, you’re so good,” Monroe said. “Do you do this as a job? If you don’t, you really should. It’s utterly wonderful.”
Monroe was often generous with her praise, but in this instance, Addie thought she was right.
“Really? Do you think so?” Greer asked almost shyly.
Addie nodded.
“Does it look like what you saw, Addie?” Greer asked. “Is there anything I should change?” Addie nodded, then shook her head. Then she gave a small grunt of annoyance at her inability to get her words out and picked up the pen and paper that Greer had put by her earlier, in case she wanted to write some details down.
“It looks just right. Nothing needs to change.”
Greer smiled widely. “All right. Ink also wanted me to work with you, Monroe, to see if I could sketch an image of Vextar.”
Monroe’s smile dimmed. “Right. Sure. We can give it a go.”
They worked for twenty minutes and Greer was frowning slightly at the end.
“Sorry,” Monroe told her. “I’m just not good at details.”
“Does this look at all like him?” Greer asked.
“Kind of,” Monroe told her.
“Anything I can add or change?”
“No, I don’t know.”
“Don’t worry,” Greer said. “Maybe something will come to you.”
Someone knocked on the door and Hack poked his head through. “Are you finished, Ladybug?”
“I think so,” Greer replied as she pulled the pictures out of the pad and placed it on the table.
Hack walked in to take a look at her artwork. “That’s what you saw, Addie?” He turned his gaze to her. His face and voice were very kind, and she found herself nodding.
“That must have been really scary for you, sweetheart,” he said.
She bit her lip to hold back her tears. Why was everybody here so nice? It was bizarre. Nobody had ever been this nice to her before. At least, not people that didn’t know her really well, like her sisters.
And yet here, people she’d only just met here were kind and understanding. It made her wonder if she wasn’t giving people enough of a chance back home, or perhaps she was living in the wrong sort of place. Maybe she should live somewhere like here.
Right, you just want to move here because of Cash.
Yeah, there was that, too. She couldn’t deny it.
“Make sure that you talk to someone about it if it starts affecting you, okay?” Hack told her. “If you find yourself waking up with nightmares a week, a month down the road, find someone you trust, and tell them about it. All right? Don’t let this eat at you.”
She nodded again.
Hack gave her a warm smile and helped Greer up. “Right, come on then, Ladybug. We need to get you home. It’s nearly dinnertime. Do you need us for anything else?” He turned to Cash.
Cash shook his head and stood, pulling his sister into a big embrace. “Thanks for coming down, Squirt.”
“Hey, who are you calling squirt? I’m older than you are.”
“Not calling you Squirt because of your age, short stuff.”
24
Greer and Hack left, and the three of them sat there for a moment in silence with Cash studying the images that Greer had drawn. One of the man with the body. One of Vextar. Sort of. She could tell from Monroe’s reaction that it didn’t really look like him.
Ralen and Dotty walked in. Dotty glanced around. “Is there any coffee? I need coffee or my brain is going to wither away.”
Addie jumped up to make her one, knowing the way her sister liked it.
“I’d like to speak to Monroe next.”
Addie turned from the coffee pot as the man she guessed was the police detective stepped into the room. He was a good-looking guy with dark hair and a five o’clock shadow.
Addie looked over at Monroe, who appeared rather worried as she stared at him.
Cash nodded at the police detective and she noticed he’d turned the image that Greer had drawn of the man with the body over. “Jackson. Been downgraded to burglary, have you?”
“Cash Savage and Ralen Garcia. I didn’t know the two of you were here. What are you up to nowadays?”
“Nothing we’d tell you about,” Ralen told him with a wide grin and a wink. “You’ll just have to hope you find out one day.”