Page 3 of Hero: Claimed

“Phew…” He whistles for effect. “That’s a ways off. Prolly an hour.”

“That’s what the cashier at Rite Aid told me. Hence I need a car.”

“How much ya give me fer it?” he asks.

“What do you want and I’ll tell you if I can come close.”

“I was askin’ six-fifty.” Six hundred fifty dollars? Do I have that much in the bag? I turn my back to the old man to count it out, then I turn back around. “I can do five hundred.” There was at least a couple grand in the bag, but I’d need it for gas, food, and a place to stay if Hannah turns me away.

“That’ll work,” the old man says. “You need to go to a bank?”

“Nope. That’s what I’ve got on me.” I turn around again to count out the five hundred. While I do that, he’s gone into the car to get the title. I give him the agreed upon money and he signs over the car to me.

He shakes my hand at the end of the transaction. “Safe travels,” he says. Thank god, I have a car. Before I leave, I make a pitstop at the gas station to fill up. The heat in the car works great. While I’m in paying for the gas, I pick up some chewing gum and an atlas. Sitting in the front seat ofmycar, I plot the rest of the trip to Thornbriar, and then I drive.

2.

Levi a.k.a Hero

“I’m here to see Hannah Brown,” the soft, feminine voice says from the rolled-down window of an old, teal-green Corolla. “She’s my sister.”

“Hannah Brown?” The kid on the gate called me out of my nice warm bed next to… what’s her name?Melly? Nelly?For this? I could be getting morning head, which happens to be one of my favorite kinds of head. Those being morning, noon and night head.

“Please.”

Herpleasesounds almost desperate. “She know you’re coming? We don’t take well to uninvited guests.”

“No.” The woman worries her bottom lip, then sucks it into her mouth to nibble. She has her eyes cast down to the steering wheel, but when she raises them up to catch my gaze,fuck me. Something pulls hard in my chest, like a sucker punch to the gut but higher.

I find it hard to catch my breath.

“Let her in,” I order the prospect. We both move out of the way to allow her car onto the compound. As he pulls the gate back closed, I point to where I want her to park.

When she gets out, she’s nothing like I expect. Her ass and stomach are bigger than on any of the women who hang around here, and apparently, she’s never strived for thigh gap. The way her thighs press so hard together, there’s probably a mark from the seam of her ugly sweatpants permanently indented into her skin.

She’s not what I would call classically pretty. Not with the bump on the bridge of her nose looking like she’s broken it at some point, or the way it turns up at the end slightly pug.

Though, I mean, it could be considered cute. And her eyes are this exotic almond shape almost too dark to consider brown.

And she wears glasses.They’re brown too, but much lighter brown than her eyes or that long, silky hair which appears to be finger combed. I’ve mussed enough women’s hair to know a finger combing job when I see one.More like the color of M&Ms.Who still wears glasses?I thought everyone bought contacts nowadays. Then there’re her tits. Big melon tits. The kind a man can snuggle down into at night for a fucking comfortable pillow.

“What?” she asks.

What? “What,what?” I ask in return.

“You’re staring.”

Shit, I am staring. “You sure your Hannah’s sister?” I offer as my excuse.

She nods. “Yes. Half-sisters. Same dad, different moms.” She swallows hard and I watch her throat bob.

That sucker punch feeling remains in my chest and it pisses me off. How dare she show up here, looking the way she does?

I clear my throat. “Hannah’s inside. Follow me.”

This time of the morning Hannah is where Hannah always is, in the kitchen cooking for the brothers.

“Hannah,” I call out to her.

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