Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 91438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Two more brothers home, and I’d be happier than I could remember being in years.
“Now that he’s gone, you can go ahead and tell me all of it. What’s the rest that you haven’t told me,” Silas said the moment Johnson cleared the door.
I looked at him, studying his face and body.
“Your sons’ kicked the shit out of Shovel. And, um, three of the four guards that… well, you know… were also taken care of by the club. That Black Jack guy, though, he really came through,” I informed him.
The man smiled.
Widely.
“Good,” he said, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. “Good.”
“Mr. Mackenzie,” a nurse said, bustling into the room with a huge computer in front of her. “How are you doing?”
I liked Silas’ nurse. She’d been his nurse the previous day, too.
“I’m fine,” he said, not admitting to being in pain.
“He hasn’t pressed his morphine pump yet, and I’m pretty sure he’s in pain,” I told her, knowing Silas would never admit to it.
Berty, the nurse, nodded. “Got it. Mr. Mackenzie, this is a morphine pump. You can press it if the red light is lit.” She indicated by picking up a button Silas could hold in his hand and pressing it. The red light clicked off, and Silas’ glared. “Don’t worry. You can’t over-medicate yourself. It’ll only let you press it every fifteen minutes, understand?”
Silas nodded. “Good. I have a few medications to give you, and I can take your catheter out if you’re interested.”
Silas nodded again.
“Excellent. Let’s take care of the catheter, first,” she said, pulling out some purple gloves and slipping them on. “Ma’am, if you could step…”
“She’s not going anywhere,” Silas snapped.
Berty winked at me. “Alright then, let’s do this.”
I watched as, with able hands, she quickly and efficiently removed the catheter from Silas.
I smiled down at my hands as I saw how uncomfortable it made him to have some woman holding his dick.
“It’s not funny,” he mumbled once she was done.
I lifted up laughing eyes to catch his angry gaze, and shrugged. “I’m sorry. I can’t help it.”
“It doesn’t feel right to have anybody touching it but you,” he grumbled.
Berty grinned, but didn’t look up from washing her hands.
I moved forward until I could place my lips on his. “I love you.”
He grinned. “Love you too, darlin’.”
And even though he was still hurt and had some healing to do, I knew everything was going to be alright.
Because Silas would make sure it was.
He’d never stop fighting for me, and I would do the same for him.
Because I loved him, and he loved me.
It was just as simple as that.
Epilogue
Old dogs know more tricks than you think they do.
- Silas to Sawyer
Silas
“I can’t believe you’re making me do this!” Sawyer grumbled under her breath as we made our way into the courthouse.
I shrugged. “It needs to be done. You deserve it.”
She sighed and stopped protesting, even though I could tell she was still just as pissed now as she had been earlier.
I hired a lawyer to take care of Sawyer’s restitution case.
The state had countered with an offer for $50,000. However, I still felt that wasn’t nearly enough.
Especially considering how even after being released from prison six months ago, and with a full four months for the people in this town to absorb the knowledge that she’d been wrongfully charged, convicted and sentenced, everyone still looked at her differently. It broke my heart every single time I saw how it affected her and how she tried to bury and hide her hurt.
It’d been four months since I’d had my ass kicked by Shovel, and I still felt like shit some days.
It was harder to recover now from something like I’d been through than it had been for my younger body.
Bouncing back the next day just didn’t happen for me anymore.
But I had the help of a beautiful woman, who was happy and doing something she loved with her life – training dogs.
She and Trance had teamed up after Trance saw how well she’d trained her puppy, and they were now well on their way to building a thriving business training dogs for people all over the Ark-La-Tex.
“It’s not just for you, you know. The government makes mistakes just like real people do. If they made a mistake with you, then they need to realize that it’s not okay. They can’t just placate you with fifty grand and call it even. You can’t really put a price on the years of your life that you’ve lost, but if you could, it certainly wouldn’t be a measly fifty grand,” I told her, once again telling her my feelings on the subject.
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”
I knew she wanted it, though, just like I did. She was afraid.
Afraid that she’d not get what she felt she deserved.
Afraid that she would get even more attention for killing four people than she previously did.
Afraid that she’d be humiliated by the court.
All of those were very warranted concerns, but it didn’t change the fact that she needed to do this.
“I’ll be right here,” I whispered. “Then afterwards we’re going to get drunk.”
She turned to me and laughed.
“We’re getting married tomorrow. You most certainly are not getting drunk the day before. I want you to look good for pictures,” she said, shaking her head.
I winked at her. “Darlin’, I look good no matter what I do. Getting drunk the day before our wedding isn’t going to change that fact.”
She snorted.
“Whatever you say, Silas. I don’t think that you can hack it anymore, though. You did say that you were getting too old for this shit to me just this morning,” she teased.
I stopped and turned her to face me.
“That was because you wanted to have sex two minutes after I just came. What exactly did you expect me to do? I’m not fifteen anymore!” I laughed.
She giggled, and I wanted to spank her.
Alas, my damn cock-blocking, busybody bunch of children walked up at that precise moment.
“Dad, seriously? You can’t say that stuff in a courthouse! Not to mention everything you just said echoed off the walls,” Shiloh said, color blooming in her cheeks.