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Without another word or look back at her, I walk out of the apartment and head to work

CHAPTER 14

Hannah

Leaning back in the passenger seat of Asher’s vehicle, I put hs and rub them on the buttery-soft leather It’s decadent, which is a little how I feel right now

After a few hours at The Wicked Horse with Asher, where he spent ” with oddess who has just been worshiped I’ve decided to stop feeling guilty about soood, which has in turn provided et Hope back

Resting hts pass us Asher has taken to picking s out, and then he drives ets out of the car, but stays parked along the curb, watching until I enter and close the door behindhis property, but either way, it’s appreciated My neighborhood can be sketchy, aresidents ant peace and quiet and a rough crowd that likes to roa three jobs, I was hardly ever home, so it didn’t matter much to me except for that mad dash from my car to my house where I’d be relatively safe

I always made sure Hope and I were locked inside by the tie of money after I’d moved in

A shotgun

My grandpa Brantley, as ood old South Carolina redneck He taught ht, a practice I now abhor because I can’t stand the thought of killing an animal But I fondly remember the ti dropped out of high school in the tenth grade where he went on to work in a tire plant for thirty long years

As backwoods as he was in s, he always told me to be independent and to think for myself He never consideredto anyone ould listen that I would get a college degree one day

That’s still on enda despite the fact I’m twenty-seven years old, so I haven’t fully let hiet stabilized, I’ll figure out my education

Until then, I est piece of advice to me He had said, “Hannah Banana… if you ever need to protect yourself with a gun, do not rely on a handgun There’s too un within easy reach if soeneral direction, pull the trigger, and you got ‘em”