Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 44774 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 224(@200wpm)___ 179(@250wpm)___ 149(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44774 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 224(@200wpm)___ 179(@250wpm)___ 149(@300wpm)
To anyone who didn’t know what had just taken place, it probably looked like she was angry with me. I knew better. The men knew better. The club girls? Sigh. Not so much.
“Aww, Styx.” I thought I’d seen the woman around but had no idea what her name was. Didn’t fuckin’ care. “The little hillbilly mad at you? Come see me if she puts you on the couch. I got a nice warm bed you can share with me.” Then the woman actually approached me, stepping in front of me and throwing her arms around my neck.
Which was when Jolene snapped into the here and now. Her head whipped around until her gaze clashed with mine. Then to the woman whose arms I was struggling to pry off me.
“What the fuck?” Jolene kept looking back and forth between me and the woman. I was starting to panic even as I kept trying to get her away from me. It wasn’t easy. It seemed like she was all arms and legs. Like an octopus. The longer Jolene looked from one of us to the other, the more angry her expression.
“Get the fuck off me,” I bit out.
“I got you, sweetie,” she said, completely ignoring Jolene. “You just let that dumb hick go on her way. You come with me, and I’ll take care of you.”
Before I could say anything, Jolene attacked. And I mean, she attacked. One second I was prying the woman’s hands from around my neck, the next Jolene had her on the ground pounding the fuck out of her. The fight started mere seconds before, and already there was blood splattered all over the floor and nearby wall. Had this been Salvation’s Bane, I’d have let the fight go on until I was certain the club girl had learned her lesson, but I had no idea how Bones worked in this regard. I’d never actually seen a club girl cause trouble with the ol’ ladies in Cain’s outfit.
I wrapped my arms around Jolene’s waist and pulled her off the other woman, whipping around to put myself between Jolene and her target. Jolene screamed like a wounded animal, the sound as much grief as it was anger, and I knew I had a huge problem on my hands.
“What the hell’s goin’ on here?” Cain stepped from the door leading to the basement. He was at the other end of the hallway, having just left the carnage in the basement of the compound.
“Cat fight,” someone said, grimly. “Queenie picked the wrong man to try to steal.”
“You good, Styx?” Cain didn’t step in so much as he was trying to feel out the situation.
“Not sure. She’s not in any kind of shape mentally for this.”
“Fucker!” Jolene screamed. “If you wanted that bitch why’d you make me think you loved me? You swore you were different! And I fuckin’ believed you!”
“Jolene, stop it! Look at me!”
“Fuck you!” She fought to free herself of me, but I held on doggedly.
“You don’t have to put up with this,” the woman -- Queenie -- managed to get out through panting breaths. “She’s a rabid animal in need of putting down!” She put her hands on my back, sliding one around my neck and the other around my waist. “Let Cain take care of the bitch and I’ll take care of you.” She tried to make her voice a seductive purr, but it just grated on my nerves like nails on a chalkboard. Then she tried to pull my head around for a kiss and I lost my shit.
“Cain, I know I’m a guest here so I’m tryin’ to not break the rules too much. But if someone don’t get this fuckin’ bitch offa me and out of my woman’s sight, I’m’a fixin’ to throw her a beatin’!”
Bohannon sighed and pulled Queenie off me while I scooped up Jolene. She still fought like a madwoman, and I suppose she was exactly that. Mad. Angry.
Hurt.
But not at me. Not really. Once I got her calmed down, she’d see this for what it was. No. Jolene was grieving. For the loss of a father who never loved her. For killing a man in cold blood. For the loss of her innocence and then of her body. She’d lost everything in life. Sure, she had me, but she didn’t know me. Not really. We’d had a couple weeks together and had been forced together by circumstances rather than because we’d wanted to be. But I loved her. And I knew she loved me back. She’d remember that after she got out all the grief and negative emotions she’d held in check her entire life. And maybe that was the surface reason for this outburst. She saw another woman with her arms around me, taking what Jolene thought of as hers. Hell, I was hers. No question of it. So, once she calmed down, I’d remind her. It was time. If she was ready -- and I thought she was -- it was time.