Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 75754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
And it wasn’t.
Only a few short crawls more, and I felt the familiar feeling of a doorway.
Zander pushed me through it, and I fell face first into a man’s ass.
A man I hadn’t realized was in front of me until I became acquainted with his butt.
“Ack,” I exclaimed.
The man didn’t budge when I hit him, even when I slammed ungracefully against his backside.
Then my hands were grabbed and I was hauled off my front porch before I was unceremoniously dumped on my front lawn.
“Ruthie!” Zander said, patting my face.
Except I couldn’t look at him.
I was too busy looking at my house burning.
All of my things that I’d managed to gather over the last seven months were gone.
Every. Last. One of them.
Then a thought occurred to me, and I was up and running back towards the front door before anybody could stop me.
I didn’t have to get far, though.
All I had to do was make it back up to the front porch, right inside the door.
I held my breath until I was dizzy, feeling around for the familiar hook that I hung all my bags from that I needed for the next day.
And as soon as my hand closed around it and I lifted it off the hook, strong arms encircled my ribcage and I was yanked back so hard that my head snapped.
I gasped in a full lungful of smoke filled air, and started to gag.
Then I started to cough as I was dragged further and further away from my home.
“Why’d you go back into the building?” Sterling yelled as he shook me, fuming.
I held out my hand, offering him the book in my hands, and his face completely fell.
“Fuck,” he sighed. “Just fuck.”
I nodded.
It was Jade’s baby book.
It had her tiny footprints…and her tiny handprints. A lock of her dark brown hair, and a few dozen pictures of her that the nurse had been kind enough to take for me.
“I couldn’t leave her behind,” I whispered brokenly.
His eyes closed, and he leaned his head forward until it rested on my shoulder.
“You could’ve died,” he whispered.
I didn’t know what to say to that.
I could have.
I didn’t want to lie. He’d know I was lying…so it defeated the purpose.
“Yo!” A voice barked, interrupting our little bubble.
I blinked, finally looking around the area.
I was at the curb now instead of on my front lawn, which was good since I could clearly see that the house was fully engulfed now.
Firemen worked hurriedly around us, massive fire hoses snaking along from the road beyond my driveway.
People surrounded a makeshift barrier of fire trucks and police cruisers.
Two bikes were parked haphazardly in the middle of it all.
One of which I knew to be Sterling’s, and the other one I’d never seen before.
“She needs to put on this mask,” a medic ordered from beside me.
I didn’t look away from the bikes.
Only kept staring as I thought about all that had happened in the last ten minutes.
It felt like hours.
“Y’all need to back up so my men can work,” Sebastian ordered, pointing to a point where there were more men standing around.
“Go over there. Stay with the cop who’s standing beside her cruiser,” Sterling ordered.
My eyes followed where he was pointing, coming to the conclusion that Sterling wouldn’t be following me over there, otherwise he would’ve led me to her.
“What are you doing here?” I asked softly.
His eyes connected with mine, and became somewhat softer.
“We’ll talk…just not right now. Go over there and be good,” he ordered once again.
I sighed and let go of his hand, walking away from him.
His stare stayed on my back as I moved through the crowd of people, coming to a stop next to a woman police officer who looked like she’d rather be anywhere else but here.
“How are you doing?” She asked reluctantly.
I smiled. “I’m fine, thanks.”
“No, she’d be better if she put this oxygen mask on her face,” the same persistent paramedic sniped from my side.
I sighed and turned, holding my hand out.
“Give it to me,” I snapped.
The medic gave me the facemask and I placed it over my nose and mouth, annoyed that she was making me wear it when I felt perfectly fine.
Except when she started the oxygen, I immediately realized how much easier it was to breathe, and inadvertently let out a small sigh of relief.
“Good,” the medic said. “Keep this on. I’ll come check on you after I check on the firefighter.”
I blinked, turning to find Zander sitting on the back of the medic, his eyes focused on me…or at least my area.
When I moved, his eyes didn’t even flicker.
And then I realized it wasn’t me he was watching, but the police officer at my side.
“You’ve got an admirer,” I said through my mask.
The officer looked down.
“What?” She asked.
I lifted my mask and said, “You’ve got an admirer.”
She looked over at the fire truck, and I was impressed with how she knew exactly whom I was talking about without asking.
“Yeah, he’s an…ex,” she said.
My brows rose.
What’d they do, graduate high school together?
Were they high school sweethearts?
“He looks into you,” I observed, watching how they watched each other.
Zander moved his big body so that the medic who was in front of him was more to his left, freeing up the area directly in front of him for his viewing pleasure.
“Well…he’s not into the fact that I’m a cop…so he can’t be that into me,” she finally offered.
I blinked, surprised that she’d admit that.
All the female cops I’d met over my time didn’t like to share feelings, and either this woman at my side didn’t mind sharing her feelings, or she was tired of holding those feelings in.
My bet was on the latter.
“How long did y’all date?” I asked, eyes scanning the area for the only man that would ever be on my mind.
“He’s by the fire truck on the right side,” she said. “And we dated for six years, all the way through high school and the first two years of college. We’ve been separated for two years now.”