Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 94313 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 472(@200wpm)___ 377(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94313 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 472(@200wpm)___ 377(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
“No,” she replied, finally. “It doesn’t matter.”
She rushed toward me, but my arms were already wide open, and I caught her easily, lifting her off the floor.
“I’m so glad you’re okay,” she murmured against my neck.
“It’s been a fuckin’ day,” I replied. “I’m so tired I could sleep standin’ up.”
“Me too.”
“Lockdown is over, sugar. So we can go—shit.”
“Your mom already told me we can stay in the guest room,” she mumbled, her face still pressed to my neck. “And Charlie said Bishop will make our house a priority.”
“That’s good news.” I set her back on her feet.
“What about Noel?” she asked, biting the inside of her cheek.
“You know that she’s always welcome with us, right?” I asked, brushing little tendrils of hair away from her face.
“Yeah.”
“But we gotta call your mom, Esther. We need to tell her that Noel’s safe and she’s with us.”
“Okay.” Esther nodded.
I stared at her in confusion. “Okay? That’s it?”
“Otto, you said my dad’s gone.” She smiled sadly. “So there’s nothing scary waiting for her at home.”
It was a mass exodus from the club, with everyone getting in everyone else’s way, anxious to get home, but I couldn’t even be irritated about it. Esther had tucked herself under my armpit and was pressed against my side from the moment we left my dad’s room to the moment I helped her into my mom’s SUV. We’d decided to wait on calling her mom until after we got back to my parents’ house and drew the short straw, so Titus and Noel rode home with us.
“Where’s your car?” I asked him, glancing at him in the rearview mirror.
He and Noel had been keeping a little distance between themselves since we got back to the clubhouse, but in the darkness of the back seat were holding hands.
“Dad said a prospect was going to pick it up and bring it back to the club,” Titus replied glumly. “He said I’m not goin’ to be usin’ it for the next year, so he didn’t want it clutterin’ up the driveway.”
“You knew you were goin’ to be in deep shit,” I reminded him.
“I didn’t think they’d take my fuckin’ car,” he argued. “I paid for it.”
“They own you until you’re eighteen, bud. Suck it up.”
“It’s bullshit.”
“You coulda got a lotta people hurt, Titus,” I snapped, not willing to let him slide. “It worked out, but it coulda gone way worse.”
He didn’t answer.
“Oh, and my fuckin’ livin’ room is toast. Just to remind you.”
“I didn’t want to say anything,” Noel said apologetically. “I wasn’t going to say anything.”
“Then why did you?” Esther asked, turning to look at her sister.
“Because Dad was waiting when Titus dropped me off at the library.” Her voice was so quiet that I almost didn’t hear her.
I waited to see if she would say anything else, but she didn’t. It must’ve been enough of an explanation for Esther, though. She just nodded and turned forward again.
The shadow of their fucked-up father loomed over the car for the rest of the ride, and no one said much. It was pretty telling that all Noel had to do was mention that her dad had caught her somewhere she wasn’t supposed to be for Esther to fully understand why Noel had spilled her guts. They’d lived inside his grip for so long that disobedience was unthinkable.
“Come on,” Titus said to Noel as soon as we rolled to a stop. “I’m gonna show you around before they call your mom.”
“Stay out of your bedroom,” I ordered as they threw open the doors.
Esther laughed quietly.
“They’re sixteen and seventeen,” I grumbled, watching as Titus pulled Noel toward the house. “He needs to keep it in his pants.”
“Otto,” Esther breathed, eyes wide as she turned to look at me.
“What? What’s wrong?”
“It moved,” she whispered, her eyes filling with tears as she yanked my hand across the console and pressed it against her belly.
“Do you feel it?” she asked.
My breath caught as she smiled at me in shock.
“It’s moving?” I asked, pressing a little harder on her belly. I wasn’t sure how much pressure was too much, but I really didn’t want to miss it.
“It just did it again,” she said excitedly. “Did you feel that one?”
She laughed, and it was so filled with joy that everything inside me just sort of settled into place. She was safe. We were together. The house could be fixed. The baby was moving.
We were okay.
“Yeah,” I lied. “I felt it!”
“Kiss me,” she ordered, still smiling as she leaned toward me.
“Look at you, bein’ all assertive,” I teased, meeting her halfway to give her what she wanted.
Epilogue
Esther
My hands were clammy and my heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest as I pressed the phone to my ear and waited for my mom to pick up.
When she finally did, I grew strangely calm.