Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 70323 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70323 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
I sighed.
“Okay, Dad,” I murmured. “Thank you.”
“You holding up okay?” he asked. “Saint treating you okay?”
I paused.
“How did you know that Saint was with me?” I questioned. “I didn’t tell Mom that.”
He scoffed.
“Well,” he said. “It happens to be that I’m a cop, and I can go up there and talk to people that have information that I want, and most of the time they give it to me without too much lip.”
I moaned. “Dad.”
“Are you in the same room as him? Or are you sharing a hotel room that’s next door? I didn’t actually understand that part,” he continued.
I looked over at the man that was staring at the blank television screen now.
“Same room,” I answered. “It’s not bad. He’s a gentleman.”
Saint snorted so loudly that my dad asked, “What was that?”
“That’s Saint,” I answered, not seeing a point in lying. “He snorted at the comment of me saying he was being a gentleman.”
Dad was about to say something else when I saw my phone ping with an incoming call.
“Your wife is calling me,” I said. “Should I answer it?”
My dad hung up instead of answering my question, giving me my answer more effectively than anything he could’ve said.
I let my head fall back against the headboard, then answered the phone and put it on speaker.
Might as well share this little nugget of fun with Saint.
He’d ask anyway.
“Hey, Mom.”
“Baby,” Mom said. “Your dad told you about your couch and your fish.”
“He said that my couch was burned, and my fish were electrocuted, yes. He said that someone broke in last night,” I answered, looking over to Saint when he went stiff.
“Yes,” she sighed. “I’m sorry, baby. We got the place pretty cleaned up. Daddy is putting in a new security system, and we’re moving your car into the garage so nobody can touch it without actually breaking in. Daddy said that the alarm system he’s putting in won’t be connected to the Wi-Fi, so it won’t matter if they somehow cut the power. He’ll be alerted if the power goes out suspiciously, too.”
Saint sat up and turned slightly toward me.
I knew he wanted to talk, so I said, “Mom, Saint wants to talk to you.”
“Saint?” she said. “Who’s that?”
“Saint’s the man that I’m in quarantine with. Daddy didn’t tell you that?” I asked.
“No.” She drew that one syllable out for long enough that I realized she wasn’t happy I hadn’t told her in the first place. “Is he a nice guy? Is he hot?”
Saint grinned wickedly at me, and I closed my eyes and let my head bounce off the headboard a few times when I said, “You’re on speakerphone, and he can hear every word you say.”
She snorted out a laugh. “Oops.”
“Did any of the neighbors see anything suspicious?” Saint asked. “Did they have any of their camera systems working?”
“That’s what Michael’s doing right now,” she said. “Canvassing the area to ask the neighbors if they did. Are you the Saint who is on the SWAT team?”
Saint made an agreeing sound. “I’m the new Saint that replaced the old Saint.”
My mom started to giggle. “Y’all are such weirdos. I bet you’re no more of a saint than my own.”
I looked at Saint to gauge his reaction to her laugh.
He was grinning, so I knew that he wasn’t offended.
“That is highly likely,” he agreed. “I have a couple of buddies I can call. They’re in surveillance. They can help out if needed.”
“If we need anything, I’ll let Michael know, and he’ll get in touch. I just wanted my girl to know that I was on top of the issues.”
Five seconds later, after a round of ‘I love yous’ on both of our parts, she hung up.
I dropped my phone down to my side and looked at the bare room around us.
• • •
SAINT
I didn’t like seeing that look in her eyes.
Not at all.
I liked the playful, give me shit, girl. Not the one that looked sad.
“Couldn’t they have just quarantined us at our own houses?” she asked crossly. “I mean, at least at home, I have a lot of my own stuff. I have chairs. And clothes that aren’t brand new and not washed.”
I hated itchy things, so I knew what she meant by that.
Hence the reason I wasn’t currently wearing a shirt.
I gestured to the shirt on the floor with a nod of my head.
“I don’t think I’ve worn a shirt with a tag since the option of ‘tagless’ became a thing.” I crossed one leg over my opposite one. “As for your question about why not at home, I would say it’s more because here they can control us. Here, we don’t pull a fuckin’ Martin who started all of this and go possibly infect everyone that pissed us off in our life. Here, they can monitor who does and doesn’t get to visit us. They can monitor our bodies as well.”