Counter To My Intelligence (The Heroes of The Dixie Wardens MC Book 7) by Lani Lynn Vale

of my hair off my forehead.
    “I killed four people,” I said, tears immediately rushing to the surface.
    “What happened?” He asked.
    I closed my eyes. “I had one beer,” I whispered, tears starting to pour from my eyes. “One. And it ruined my life.”
    He blinked. “You had one beer? That’s it?”
    I nodded. “Just a single Solo cup full.”
    “I remember reading the newspaper article. It didn’t say anything about only one beer. It said you were drunk, over the legal alcohol limit. You are a small woman, but you wouldn’t have gotten drunk off of only a single cup full,” he rumbled, sitting up and turning on the light.
    I nodded. “I wasn’t drunk at all. In fact, I was barely even buzzed. I used to drink a glass of wine every night back then, so it wasn’t like I had alcohol intolerance. It was just a bad deal,” I whispered.
    His face, though, showed his incredulity.
    “What did the police report say? What was your blood alcohol level?” He asked, sitting up in the bed and throwing the covers off his lap.
    I watched as he walked to the bathroom and flipped on the light before shutting it slightly behind him.
    “I never heard what my blood alcohol level was, but then again, I didn’t really care at that point. I’d just killed four people, one of which I graduated with,” I informed him.
    I heard the sound of him using the bathroom, and I wondered if he even heard me.
    But after I heard the toilet flush, and the sound of him washing his hands, he came out with a worried look on his face.
    “If you don’t mind,” he said tentatively, “I’d like to look into your case.”
    I shrugged. “That’s fine. I’d always hoped for parole at four years. That was what my lawyer promised me would happen. But I was denied.”
    I frowned.
    That denial had hurt.
    Badly.
    I didn’t even know why I was telling him all of this.
    He’d asked, and I’d told him things that I hadn’t even told my own mother.
    “Who was your lawyer?” He asked.
    “A family friend,” I told him instantly.
    He frowned. “Was your family friend a good lawyer? You don’t fuck around with something like that. You needed the best. Not someone that would feel obligated to help you.”
    “He’s dead now, so I wouldn’t really know. We got what we could afford, which sadly wasn’t much. Not that it matters now since it’s all over,” I whispered, looking down at my hands.
    He looked at me like I’d grown a second head.
    “It’s not all over,” he rumbled, getting back into bed beside me.
    I blinked. “What do you mean? I served my eight years.”
    “You’re telling me you don’t lie awake at night and think about how horrible you are?” He asked.
    I snapped my mouth shut.
    I did do that.
    “And you don’t mind the whispers from all the townsfolk?” He continued.
    I laid back down on the bed and pressed my face into the pillow.
    I didn’t want to talk about this.
    “I’m not hearing your answer,” he said knowingly.
    I narrowed my eyes into the pillow.
    “It’s understandable. I killed four people. What do you want them to do, thank me?” I snapped, turning my head and glaring at him from across the sheets.
    Maybe I should go.
    Except I couldn’t really leave since I’d left my car an hour away.
    Fucking great.
    “You can check the fuckin’ attitude, Sawyer, I’m only trying to help. I’ve been in law enforcement since I was eighteen years old; I know a thing or two about laws. And the fact that you killed four people while not being drunk , because they pulled out in front of you , is not something you go to jail for eight years for,” he snapped. “All I’m trying to tell you is it doesn’t make fuckin’ sense. You didn’t even take a plea deal. I can’t figure out why you were even in jail.”
    I shrugged.
    “I don’t know,” I said, duly chastised.
    He placed his rough palm on my cheek. “I’ll look into it…but it wasn’t your fault, from what I remember of the wreck. They had