AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I watched Utah’s hand lower away from the gun, and I closed my eyes to remind myself to breathe.
“I can give you any amount of money,” I said quietly.
“Listen,” Doc said. “I’m just going to leave. I don’t want your money. I don’t want anything from you that could tell anyone that I was ever here with you.”
“Those are much smarter words,” Utah said and chuckled.
“I’ll come back later to clean up and lock the place,” Doc said and hurried toward the door. “Just be gone by then, please.”
CHAPTER FORTY
jersey
“We’re almost home, and she’ll feel better if you’re at least awake when she sees you again,” I heard a quiet voice say from what sounded like miles away, but somehow also directly inside my skull. This was what normally happened when someone picked me up from the airport after a deployment overseas though. The second I was in a vehicle on safe ground, I crashed hard until someone woke me up to tell me that Faith was excited to see me, and I should be awake, so she’d see that I was excited to see her too.
“Liz?” I asked, bringing my hand up to cover the hand that was resting on the side of my neck.
The catch in her breathing forced my eyes open, but everything was blindingly bright and blurry for a few moments.
“No, J.”
I shot upright at the sound of her voice. She wasn’t the tall, thin, soft-spoken blonde who’d given me a child. She was the miniature, dark-haired siren who liked to pick fights just for the sake of what I did to her afterward. Sitting up suddenly felt like the worst decision I’d ever made. I couldn’t keep my eyes open, and I felt like I was spinning in circles.
“Just stay still for a minute, New Jersey,” a fucking man’s voice chimed in.
“Seriously, who the fuck is this kid, Triss?”
“That’s Utah,” she said quietly. “Memphis called him and Indy to help.”
“What is that awful fucking noise?” I asked.
“Turn the radio off, Utah,” Trista said.
“Awful fucking noise?” He repeated. “I’ll turn it off just because his head’s fucked up, but that is Bailey Zimmerman and I’ll toss his ass in the bed for the rest of this drive if he’s going to be insulting my music.”
“Make him stop talking before I jump out of this fucking monstrosity of a vehicle, Triss.”
“What did Ariel ever do to you?” Utah asked.
“Who the fuck is Ariel?” I asked.
“Like The Little Mermaid?” Trista asked and giggled.
“Bingo.”
“Ariel,” I couldn’t help but fucking laugh when I repeated the name. “Flounder. It’s Flounder. The annoying, too bright, bitch of a sidekick at best. It’s not the mermaid. Seriously, Trista. Where is Persephone?”
“Jealousy isn’t a good color on you, old man. Ariel could drive right over that sad little car of yours,” Utah said.
“Jealousy,” I scoffed. “Says the boy with the worst case of small man syndrome I’ve ever seen in real life. The size of this truck won’t do a damn thing to help the size of your dick, kiddo.”
“Guys,” Trista interrupted. “There’s no fucking way this is really the first conversation that you’re having. One of you is still half fucking dead,” she said and glared at me. “And the other did everything he could to help. He got us out of there, Jersey.”
“I was already on my way out before he showed up.”
“Should’ve left you in that parking lot,” Utah said.
Trista let out a heavy sigh and reached up between the front seats to squeeze his shoulder.
