Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 70628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
“Was I right, or was I right?” I ask.
“You were right,” Aspen says. “Sit down, Taylor.”
“So you tried to make a break for it,” I say to Taylor.
“Can you blame me?”
“Not in the slightest. But I’m sure Aspen filled you in on what we need.”
“I need your protection first.”
“Fine. Done.”
Aspen looks at me, raises her eyebrows slightly. I nod back at her. Very slightly.
What the hell? We probably should’ve offered Gloria protection. But at the time, we weren’t sure whether she was a friend or an enemy.
I think she was probably a bit of both.
Probably the same as this woman sitting on the couch now.
She’s nervous and fidgety. A nice-looking woman, not quite as tall as Aspen, with dark hair highlighted in blue and light brown eyes. Her hair is short, although not as short as Aspen’s. She’s still clearly athletic, as she’s wearing yoga pants and a sports bra.
“Where’s your wife today?” I ask.
“She’s at work. Why?”
“I don’t really want anyone barging in on us right now.”
“She gets home around six. She’s a software engineer.”
“What do you do?”
“I’m an assistant coach for a local volleyball team. We practice in the evenings.”
“Good. Then you’re free for now.”
Taylor nods. “That’s why I’m home.”
“All right. We will guarantee your protection. I have the backing of the Wolfe family in Manhattan, and they have offered Aspen and me everything we need to find out the truth behind her abduction.”
“All right.”
Interesting. No look of surprise on Taylor’s face when I use the word abduction.
That’s a big tell.
“Where do you want me to start?” she asks.
“At the beginning,” I say.
“Like I said, it’s a long story. It starts before Aspen even joined the team.”
“So was Gloria in my position before I joined?”
“They had all but promised it to her,” Taylor says. “But then they found you.”
“Okay.”
“Gloria was just as good as you,” Taylor says. “You got the position because of your size.”
“I don’t think that was ever a secret,” Aspen says.
“No, it wasn’t.”
“Gloria and I were pretty much equal as far as skill goes,” Aspen says. “I always knew that, and so did she.”
“So then you can understand why she was upset. The position was all but hers, but because you were a few inches taller, you got it.”
“It may interest you to know that I have no control over my genetics,” Aspen says.
“We all get that. Nobody had anything against you as a person. Especially not Gloria. She loved everyone, or she tried to. It ate her up inside, how you made her feel.”
“What?” Aspen’s jaw drops.
“According to Aspen,” I say, “Gloria never had a bad word to say about anyone. She prayed for everyone.”
“That’s exactly how she was,” Taylor says. “But she felt a lot of resentment toward you, Aspen. And she hated herself for it. It tore her up.”
“I never saw any of that. We were thrown together all the time for practice. For hotel stays.”
“She never let you see it. She never let most people see it. But she and I were in a relationship. So I did see it.”
“Did she talk to you about it?” I ask.
“Not at first. I had to drag it out of her.”
“And how did it come out?” Aspen asks.
“It was about a week before we went to that Manhattan game. When they announced that you and she would be rooming together yet again. She asked the manager to change the assignments. She wanted to room with me, or really with anyone besides you. But they wouldn’t change it. So Gloria… She just… She wasn’t herself, and I asked her what was wrong. And finally she just blurted it out.”
“Blurted what out exactly?” I ask.
“How she hated the fact that she was constantly reminded of how she was second-best. And now she had to room with you again.”
“Wait, wait, wait. This was only like the second or third time we had a room together.”
“Because it was only the second or third time since you had taken her position on the team.”
“I had just joined the team. I had just graduated from college.”
“Yeah, that’s what I mean. You took the position that she was supposed to get.”
“You keep saying I took something from her. I didn’t. I earned that position. I tried out. I jumped through all the hoops just like she did.”
“And you got the position because you’re a few inches taller than she is.”
“Did I not just say I know that? That I admit we were equal in every way except that? We could both jump, but I could jump higher because I’m taller. And did I also not just say that I have no control over my height? My height brought something to the table that Gloria didn’t have. Is that my fault?” Aspen clenches her fists and her cheeks redden.
“Baby…”
I don’t want to upset Aspen, but she’s getting emotional. And that needs to stop. Especially with a gun strapped to her shoulder.