Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 53605 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 268(@200wpm)___ 214(@250wpm)___ 179(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 53605 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 268(@200wpm)___ 214(@250wpm)___ 179(@300wpm)
The tracking app is up on my screen in moments, and I breathe more easily when I see the little white dot on the map, showing me where she is right this second.
Not her car. Not her purse or her cell phone. Nancy.
Even if she’s naked, I’ll know exactly where she is. Though she better be clothed if there are any other males in the near vicinity or I’ll be facing a murder charge.
“I’m coming, baby,” I tell her, stroking the screen.
Then I dive out of the door and into my truck. The Mercedes and her VW are still here.
Uber.
Fucking Uber.
Jesus.
She said she’s going to see Azra, and that either I could take care of Taylor or she’d find someone that could come in and feed him while she’s away. Apparently her friend’s in town, staying at a hotel, and there’s some sort of plan to get Nancy out of the fucking country or something. Like she thinks I won’t chase her ass down across the world if I have to? Fuck that. I’d follow her to the moon.
I pop my phone into the dash holder and use the tracking app like a GPS, putting my foot to the floor every time I get a straight run. She seems to be sticking to the speed limit though, because I gain on her fast.
“Good girl. Keep my two most important people safe. Daddy’s coming.”
I spot a Mazda ahead with a Uber sticker on the back window. I gun it after her, weaving around the nose end of a Ford sedan coming from a side street and getting a blare of horns in my wake.
Time was, I would have taken the trouble to flip the asshole off, but not today. Today I’m focused on one thing.
The car turns into a hotel’s underground parking garage when I catch up to her, but I’m not chasing after her down there. I slam the gas, inch past her then pull the parking brake, skidding out and beating her to the turn by a whisker. Then I’m out and running for her car.
“What the fuck?” I tear open the back door as the driver looks at me with terror.
She frowns and points at my vehicle, blocking hers. Her eyes are puffy and red, tears still drying on her cheeks. “I could ask you the same thing!”
“I’m gone for a couple of hours and you’re leaving the fucking country?”
“I don’t want you to think I’ve trapped you. This is my mess, I can clean it up. You never wanted children, you said so, I read it! A year ago you told some sports guy on a pod cast.”
I blink, shaking my head, trying to think where she could have possibly read that. I don’t keep a diary, so… “An interview? You’re bringing up a goddamn interview? Baby, those things aren’t real. They get you to say stuff and half the time you don’t even know what it is you’re telling them.”
“But you don’t say something like that if you don’t mean it. You left. You needed time to think, right?”
“Time to think?” I drop to my knees in front of her, still shaking my head, careless of the rainwater puddling around my legs. I take her face in my hands and wipe the tears from her cheeks. I never want to see her sad. Never again. “Sis, I don’t need to think about anything. Not with you. I’m all in. You. Me. Our baby. Ours. If you run away from me, I’m going to chase you down and I’m going to bring you right back. Because we belong together. Forever.”
She’s staring at me. Frowning.
Then she starts to laugh. Her hands fly to her face as she bursts with it, covering her mouth, her eyes creasing up.
“What?” I don’t let her go. I can’t. I hold her face in my hands and stroke her perfect skin, pushing her hair back behind her ears. “What, lil’ bit?”
She shakes her head, rocking back and forth a little. “Sorry.”
“No, what? Tell me.”
“Sorry, it’s just, down in the rain like that, I suddenly had an image of you proposing.”
My heart leaps into my throat. “And you find that funny?”
“Well, kinda… I’m nearly eight months pregnant. You’re my stepbrother. Our parents got married so suddenly and I was about to run off to another country with my friend. Come on, it’s a little funny…”
I’m shaking my head as I reach into my pocket and bring out the little box. “Well, I don’t find it funny.”
Her face falls, shock taking over as all the laughter dies. And silence stretches.
“Marry me, baby Be my wife, my stepsister and the mother of my baby. I want it all.”
For a long pause, she says nothing. I don’t wait. I can’t. I slide the four carat zinger onto her finger and admire the way it looks sat right there.