Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 83800 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83800 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
He hasn't glanced my way once since he walked in here, and although it feels very childish, I don't get to dictate how the man behaves.
"We can't hold her prisoner," Bandera interjects.
"We can, at a minimum, have someone watch her house if she goes home," Heathen suggests.
"Is that a Cerberus thing?" Whiskey asks as he looks at each guy in the room. "There's only four of us."
"Five," I interject, needing the man to eventually realize I'm as much a part of this team as the other guys who work in the field.
"Five," he corrects. "If we put someone on every woman who might be in danger, we're going to run out of the ability to help anyone."
"She's in danger because of me," I remind him. "I think until I know what Henry's plans are, she deserves our protection."
"And she can get it here," Whiskey argues. "If she wants to leave, we can't spread ourselves so thin that we can't protect anyone."
"I spoke with her earlier," Bandera says with his hands up as if to stave off any other remarks. "She wants to go to her house and get some clothes, and she wants to go to work."
"So we sit on her at work?" Whiskey asks.
"What is your fucking problem?" Twisted growls, his arms uncrossing. He leans in, pressing his palms flat to the conference room table as if preparing to jump across the damn thing and punch Whiskey in the face.
Whiskey shrugs, unfazed by his teammate's reaction.
"Sitting on her at work is no different from sitting on her at her house," the newest member argues. "It ties up resources."
"If she comes back here, then it won't take more than one person a day to keep an eye on her," Bandera says. "I think we can spare someone."
"I would prefer to work a different case," Whiskey says. "I need a break from sitting and doing nothing all damn day."
"Understood," Bandera adds, once again taking the lead as if he has an invisible president patch on his chest. "I will ask that you and Twisted accompany her to her house so she can grab some more clothes and whatever essentials she may need for her continued stay here."
Whiskey dips his head in agreement, drawing another scowl from Twisted.
I wouldn't be surprised if the guys got in a fistfight before the day ended.
"Where are we with your evil twin?" Bandera asks, turning his attention to me. "Anything new?"
I shake my head. "I have all sorts of programs running. I have alerts set up, and there hasn't been a single hit."
"He's done this shit in the past?" Whiskey asks.
This is his first meeting in the conference room, so he missed the other meetings we've had since shit went down at Morgan's house a few days ago.
"Too many times to count," I mutter.
"But he's never hurt anyone?"
"He wrapped his arm around my wife's throat and made her pass out before holding a knife there and threatening her with it," Heathen growls. "He could've raped her."
"He didn't," I remind him.
Henry is a lot of things. He's done some really horrible stuff in his life, but he's not a sexual predator. He might've flirted with Morgan to put her in the position she's in, but I don't think he would've pressed his luck or forced himself on her if she had told him to stop. What they did, although manipulative and deceptive on his part, was completely consensual.
"My point," Whiskey says as Heathen and I stare at each other, "is that she may not be in any real physical danger, right?"
His eyes land on me, and my first instinct is to do what I've always done— defend my brother on some off-chance of hope that he'll wake up one day and change his ways.
But I have to be completely honest, no matter how much I hate the realization.
"He's escalating," I say. "As much as he's done in the past, to my knowledge, he never took someone hostage. He never hurt a woman until Kaylee. I can't say with any level of certainty that he won't take it further next time."
Whiskey dips his head as if he believes me and that acceptance is all he needs to get on board with the plans to protect Morgan.
"I'll take the first watch tomorrow when she returns to work," Bandera says. "Then we'll play it by ear."
"She's not going to wait until Monday to go back to work?" Twisted asks.
"She wants to stop using vacation days," Bandera explains. "She has a trip planned to Europe in the summer."
"She's traveling alone?" Twisted growls, making it very clear that he feels a higher level of protectiveness over the woman than he probably should.
Heathen looks in my direction, his eyebrows raising. It seems I'm not the only one who has caught on to Twisted feeling something for Morgan.