Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 90085 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 450(@200wpm)___ 360(@250wpm)___ 300(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90085 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 450(@200wpm)___ 360(@250wpm)___ 300(@300wpm)
My phone buzzed again. I knew without looking that it was Linc. He’d not been satisfied with my telling him that there was nothing in Montana’s things to use against her. She was clean. Fucking innocent in all this shit. So, I’d been tasked with getting her out of the cabin so he could go through her stuff.
Baskin was freaking the fuck out over his nephew’s interest in her. Crew had apparently come home, talking about her, and his mother had called her sister-in-law to find out what Baskin knew about her since she was a friend of the family, so Baskin’s wife mentioned to him that Crew had a crush on a new girl.
Sending her to the public high school had been a terrible idea. If Baskin didn’t want people to notice her and start asking questions, then he should have asked Linc to keep her in the cabin the entire time she was here. Anywhere she went, she was going to be noticed.
When I didn’t reply to the text, my phone started ringing.
Rolling my eyes, I took out my phone, saw Linc’s name, and answered it.
“Yes, sir?” I asked, keeping my eyes on Montana, who was smiling so damn big that it was hard to look anywhere else.
“You’re right. Nothing. She doesn’t even dog-ear the pages in her books. Fuck.” He muttered the last word.
“Yeah,” I agreed.
“She can’t go back to school. Baskin wants her out of Crew’s sight.”
“Did he consider it’s going to be odd if she never shows back up? Folks in this town are nosy as fuck.”
He sighed. “Yeah. I’m working on a story to tell the principal that will hopefully get spread around.”
“How’s she going to graduate? That is part of her deal.”
She laughed, and I thought even Jack was mesmerized. Damn, she was hard not to want. It was impossible. The image of her last night with that camisole sticking to her and her hair mussed and draped over her shoulders came back to me. She’d had a nightmare, and all I could think about was how she’d look after having been fucked for hours. Then I’d waited until she had time to fall back asleep and given in to jerking off with her front and center in my head.
“The virtual program,” he said. “I’m having her registered today, and she can start tomorrow. She’s already got the laptop from the school and the things she needs.”
Awesome. She was going to be with me twenty-four/seven. And I wasn’t supposed to touch her. Fucking hell.
“I doubt she’s gonna like that,” I said while she and Jack made her way over to me.
“Doesn’t matter what she likes. Just matters that she keeps her mouth shut.”
Reaching into my back pocket, I pulled out my pack of cigarettes. I’d cut down to just having one when I was tense. This pack had lasted me two weeks so far. Tapping one out, I stuck it in my mouth before putting the pack back and getting my lighter.
“All right, gotta go,” I told him through my teeth.
“Keep her away for another thirty minutes at least,” he told me.
“Will do.”
I ended the call, then lit the cigarette. Her immediate scowl was similar to the last two times she’d seen me smoke. I’d smelled the familiar scent on some of her things. All of her books, in fact. It wasn’t like she hadn’t been around it. If she hadn’t smoked, then her mom or someone in her house had.
“Those aren’t good for you,” she stated.
I smirked. “You worried about my health now, Six?”
Her scowl deepened at the use of her new nickname. “I don’t like to be around it, is all.”
“What? You think the secondhand smoke is gonna get you?” I asked, amused.
Stirring her up was something I’d come to enjoy. I liked it when she was all pissy.
“Yes.”
“Unlikely, but if it does, it won’t be from the few times you’re around me smoking. It’ll be whoever smoked at your house. I carried your boxes. I know that scent.”
She tensed, and her face paled.
What the fuck had I said? She couldn’t seriously be worried about secondhand smoke.
“I know,” she said, almost too soft for me to hear.
I studied her, and when that scared, haunted expression didn’t go away, my chest felt tight. That was odd.
“Listen, I was joking.”
“I wasn’t,” she replied, then took a deep breath and let it out. “My momma. She was the one who smoked. And…and it killed her. She was only thirty-eight. Her mother had died of the same thing for the same reason at forty. She was gone before I was born.” She looked over my head, back toward the field behind me.
Jesus. Fuck. I had known her mom had died of cancer, but with her being so young, I hadn’t expected it was lung cancer.
I took the cigarette from my mouth and held it. “I’m sorry,” I told her.