Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 71871 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71871 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Tim, who was apparently also a helicopter pilot, was flying us to the airport that was a five-minute drive from Destin. From there, we were going to rent a vehicle and drive to the rental we’d be staying in for the next week.
And I was nervous.
Nervous as hell, honestly.
Because, the more time that I had to think about what had been uncovered today and yesterday, the more nervous I became.
Because, now that I was thinking about it, I realized that Luca definitely wasn’t the same man that he used to be.
He didn’t act like him. He didn’t look like him. He didn’t even want to be him, I didn’t think.
Which meant… would he even want me?
Would he feel the same way for me that I felt for him? Or would I find myself caring for a man that would never care about me in return?
I was honestly terrified.
What if he didn’t want me?
What if he’d turned into this man that didn’t need me anymore? Didn’t need me like I needed him?
Needless to say, by the time we arrived at our destination, I was a freakin’ mess.
My stomach was roiling, my head was spinning, and I was about ten seconds from throwing up.
In fact, that was my main priority as I started to uselessly pull on my buckles and fastenings that were holding me in my seat.
At first, Luca didn’t realize that I was panicking.
He was too busy focusing on getting his own self unbuckled to notice my rising hysteria.
It was at the point that he was done, and when I’d only managed to tighten my buckles instead of loosening them, that he finally looked up.
My rising anxiety level must’ve shown on my face because he leaned forward quickly and unfastened me in five seconds.
I was out the door that Tim was pulling open and running full out on the pasture where we’d landed before dropping to my knees and losing my lunch—what little of it I’d managed to eat after learning Luca was really Luca—in the tall grass.
Just as I finally started to dry heave, I found myself being pulled into Luca’s arms.
Which was about the time that I started to cry.
Because… it felt right.
For the first time in so freakin’ long, I felt complete again.
I trembled as I cried, and Luca held me.
He held me and didn’t let me go.
Not until I was all cried out.
That was when I realized that the sound of the blades of the helicopter were no longer filling the air.
That it was silent as a tomb.
“You scared the shit out of me.” His voice sounded ragged, as if he’d just gargled with rocks and did a couple shots of vodka for shits and giggles. “It’s dangerous to be out while the blades are still spinning.”
I looked up when I felt the chill in his tone.
“What are you talking about?” I mumbled into his chest.
He shivered.
“When helicopters are powering down, their blades droop,” he said. “That’s when they’re most dangerous. You could’ve been decapitated.”
I shivered just thinking about it.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
And I was.
I had no idea.
“I know,” he said. “You didn’t know.”
I looked over Luca’s shoulder to see Tim being yelled at by someone.
“Who’s that?” I asked.
Tim was standing at rigid attention, and his back was so ramrod straight that I had a feeling whoever the person doing the yelling was, he was an important guy.
“Based on his dress, I would say an officer or some sort,” Luca said. “Are you okay to go back?”
Was I okay to go back?
I had no fucking clue.
I wasn’t okay in the least.
In fact, I was so far from okay that I wasn’t sure I’d ever be okay again.
But I could suck it up.
I could make it to the vacation rental.
I could, and I would.
At my nod, Luca had me on my feet and he was leading me back toward the still pissy officer and Tim.
Tim didn’t even glance sideways when we arrived.
He was still wholly focused on the officer tearing him a new one… for something that I’d done.
“That was my fault,” I said, interrupting the man’s tirade.
The officer looked at me like he couldn’t believe I’d just interrupted him.
“I was having a panic attack,” I said, ignoring his obvious disapproval. “I had to get out of there, or I would throw up.”
“Well you almost got yourself killed,” he snapped at me.
He was looking at me as if I’d grown a second head. As if he couldn’t believe I was actually addressing him and interrupting him at that.
Well, tough shit.
I didn’t care who that man was.
He wasn’t an officer over me.
He was just a man that was ripping Tim a new asshole for something that I’d done.
And I wasn’t okay with that.
The officer narrowed his eyes at me, and I allowed my gaze to drift down the man’s chest to see that his name, Ortiz, was stitched onto his breast pocket.