Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 125037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
She rubbed her face against the wall of his chest, inhaling deeply, taking him into her lungs before she stepped away from him. “I’m ready.”
He handed her the trekking poles, indicating the door with the duffel bag he’d picked up.
The moment the cool breeze touched Leila’s face, she felt so much better. The day was beautiful. Not too cold, certainly not overly hot. There was no fog swirling through the trees, just a million shades of green surrounding them. The house was in a very small clearing, the towering trees and thick brush several feet back from the cabin.
“Rubin and I like to see what’s coming at us,” he explained.
“What if you get trapped in the cabin?” She couldn’t imagine, but if someone did sneak up on them, they would have a problem disappearing into the forest.
“Three escape routes, Warrior Woman. I’ll show them to you when we go in this evening.”
She liked that they were going to be outside for several hours. They walked slowly along a faint trail toward the destination Diego clearly had in mind.
“You said you mostly healed animals before you did surgery on me. Tell me about those animals and how you came about helping them.” She not only loved the sound of his voice and wanted him talking to her, but she wanted to know everything there was to know about him. She knew he loved animals—probably more than he did humans.
He matched her pace. She was a little awkward using the trekking poles. It wasn’t something she was used to, and she needed to establish a rhythm. More than anything, she was weak, and that made her cautious. She didn’t want to fall on her face and have Diego decide it was too early for her to be outside. His voice would distract her and keep her moving even when she felt a little out of breath.
“The first time I ever healed an animal was my sister Lucy’s pet rabbit. We weren’t allowed pets, but she’d found some baby bunnies all alone. All of the babies in the nest were dead but one. Most likely we had eaten the mother, but none of us told her that. Lucy managed to keep that one alive. She really fought for that little thing.”
He matched her steps for a couple of minutes in silence and then strode ahead of her. She could see two camp chairs placed side by side in a small opening facing the trees. He set the duffel bag down and came back to escort her.
“You were telling me about the baby bunny and your sister Lucy.”
He took the trekking poles from her and helped to lower her slowly into one of the camp chairs. “My sister Lucy liked to sing. She was a ray of sunshine dancing around the house. Even when she did chores, and she did a ton of them, she danced and sang. She put that little baby rabbit in a sling around her chest to keep it warm. You have to understand our mother thought singing and dancing was a sin. A big dark, black, ugly sin. That meant Lucy would have to be subjected to an exorcism, according to our mother. She said Lucy had the devil in her and it needed to come out.”
He paused and looked down at Leila. She hadn’t considered that he was that much taller, but he seemed to tower over her. His features were once again hard, giving him that brutal edge. His mouth looked almost cruel. His look alone set her heart pounding, but she refused to look away. She looked beyond the intimidation to the rage inside him. And it was rage. Deep.
He didn’t look away from her, even knowing what he was revealing to her. He let her see the killer in him. That was there in his eyes. She could have sworn she saw flames leaping behind those dark angry eyes.
“Tell me,” she whispered, reaching out to place her hand gently over his wrist.
His first instinct was to jerk away from her, but he didn’t. He continued looking down at her with the eyes of a savage predator. She refused to look away or be intimidated. She absolutely knew she was the safest person in the world from him.
“Tell me, honey,” she encouraged.
“My sister was sunshine and light. She was one of the few bright spots in our home, and yet because she dared to sing or dance, our mother had to do her best to extinguish her light. I could barely stand by and watch the things our mother did to her, all in the name of what was holy. Lucy didn’t utter a single word no matter what was done to her.”
Leila found herself holding her breath. She knew something terrible was about to be revealed. Diego’s expression didn’t change. His voice remained low and without inflection. Still, she knew, and air caught in her lungs and burned.