Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 68500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
“I was stressed, seeing you get hit like that made me fucking want to kill him, and the fastest way to get that urge under control was to get y’all out of there,” I admitted. “I’m sorry for yelling and undermining you down there. It won’t happen again.”
Hopefully.
Maybe.
Probably not if that situation ever presented itself again, but she didn’t need to know about that indecision.
She deflated. “Oh.”
I looked toward Winston with a raised brow, and he shrugged.
“He does have a point, though,” Crimson said. “I mean, let’s face reality here. All it would’ve taken was one wrong move, and you could’ve died. You’re lucky that you just hit the ground and need stitches. And what you told us about the cop, she took a grazing glance of his fist across her temple and was out in the back of the ambulance for a full two minutes. If he hadn’t been cuffed to that bed for the majority of the ride, that entire ambulance crew could’ve died.”
Hearing that part of the story was news to me. But Crimson was right.
This could’ve gone so much worse, and they all knew it.
“Let’s just also point out that when we work the games part of the circus, ninety-five percent of men can hit that little punching bag harder than a woman. I’m not saying that you couldn’t have taken that hit, but hitting your face, and hitting Felix’s face, are so much different.” Crimson continued, “And you bruise easily.”
I bit my lip, trying to keep the smile veiled.
Crimson was right. Val did bruise easily. As in, the woman couldn’t walk around and graze a table with her leg without a bruise the size of the table popping up on her thigh.
“Come over here already and fix it,” Crimson said eventually when Val had nothing to add to her sister’s words.
I came in, shoved everything to the side on her food tray, and set up the kit.
I got started, and eventually put four very small sutures in the hairline of Val’s head.
She didn’t say a word the entire time.
But Crimson watched the entire thing with avid fascination.
“You know, I kind of wished they would’ve recorded my surgery so I could’ve watched it,” Crimson sighed. “This is awesome. Maybe I should be a doctor.”
“You hop through life like a goddamn rabbit,” Winston supplied from his chair beside the bed that both Crimson and Val were now occupying. “There’s no way in the world you’re going to be able to take the time it’s going to require to become a doctor. You know how much Val had to work. You straight up told me all about her life after she left a few days ago. Do you honestly think you can hack it?”
Crimson looked at her man.
“Are you saying you don’t believe in me, Winston?” She batted her eyelashes at him.
“He’s calling you on your bullshit,” Hades said as she came in.
Hades was my favorite sister.
I liked her because she had always been able to tell her father to ‘go fuck himself’ while the rest of them seemed to be inherently wired to always give the selfish fuck exactly what he wanted.
When I heard that he’d continued to dictate their lives, even after death with their stupid two-year working for the circus bullshit, I honestly wanted to throw my hands up in frustration. And every last fuckin’ one of them gave the old goat exactly what he’d wanted.
All except for Hades.
She’d fought back, and I admired her for it.
She walked in wearing a slouchy sweater that looked like it was about to fall right off her shoulder, a pair of dirty jeans that looked like they’d been through hell, and a pair of hiking boots.
“Come right off the trail?” I asked her.
“Came right from Colorado where I shot a destination wedding for a philanthropist who had more money than sense,” she corrected me. “It’s nice to see you again, Felix. You’re looking very good.”
Crimson snickered. “He does look pretty good, doesn’t he? You look like you’ve been working out.”
I ignored them both and added one last stich before I started to clean Val up.
In my time with Val, I’d had a lot of time to get to know the sisters.
Val couldn’t go a single day without talking to at least three of them on the phone.
When I got home, she was on a phone call with at least one of them. When she was in the car, there was another on the phone. At least one or two of them would call during her shift, too.
Needless to say, I’d had plenty of time to get to know them and had even met them all multiple times during our relationship.
It was good to see them again.
“Done,” I said right as the phone in my pocket started to vibrate.
I felt my stomach clench.