Free Over the Hills and Far Away (NOLA's Own #1) by Kelli Jean Page B

water and slunk our asses up to my bedroom.

Phil
    Somethin’ was wrong—really, really wrong.
    From a dead fuckin’ sleep, I woke up at fuckin’ three forty-five in the goddamn morning. Next to me, naked and warm, slept the redhead I’d snagged last night after the show. Guilt stabbed at me, making my heart bleed a little bit.
    Four weeks. It had been four weeks since I found my Baby Girl, since I lost my Baby Girl, since my life went from an all-time fuckin’ high to the lowest and darkest I’d ever felt. But that wasn’t it, not really. Maybe just a part of it. It was something else.
    It’s her, you fool. Somethin’ is really, really wrong with her. She’s hurtin’ bad. Her heart’s broken. Can’t you feel it? She’s the one in a dark place!
    Dizziness spun my head, making me want to gag. Getting up, I stumbled into the bathroom just in time to puke up my guts. The stench of half-digested bourbon assailed my nose, helping to bring up the rest.
    Yeah, fuckin’ got wasted last night. I’d been doing that a lot lately. Normally, I’d only have a beer or two, but I was hitting the hard stuff more and more. When I did, I liked to find me a sweet piece and pretend I was banging my Baby Girl.
    The sleeping redhead was starting to irritate the fuck outta me now. I needed her gone. Rinsing out my mouth and pulling on my boxers, I headed back into the room.
    Grabbing her shoulder, I shook her, “Hey.”
    Snorting, she woke up. “Hey, baby. Time for round four?” she asked me, all sleepy.
    “Naw, mama. I need you to go.”
    “What?” she asked, rubbing her eyes with her knuckles.
    “You gotta go.”
    I was prepared for a fuckin’ meltdown, but the woman simply got up, got dressed, and grabbed her shit.
    “It was fun,” she said, writing something down on the pad next to the door. “Give me a call the next time you’re in town.”
    “Sure, sure,” I replied, not even considering it.
    Her smile made me feel a bit ill.
    “Next time, maybe you could…go all in,” she said as she winked before shutting the door.
    The hell I would.
    Sitting down on the edge of the shitty motel bed, I rubbed my face with my hands, not knowing what the fuck I was supposed to do. I knew something wasn’t right, but then nothing had been right since the night I lost my Baby Girl.
    “Where are you?” I whispered.
    Nothing would be right until I found her again. I even had people looking around for her, and nothing had turned up. There were no gorgeous copper-headed, green-eyed amazons by the name of Kenna anywhere in the whole fucking state of Louisiana. I could’ve sworn she and her friends had said they hailed from LaPlace— my old neighborhood. I had taken that as a sure sign.
    Lying back on the now empty bed, I closed my eyes against the nicotine stains on the ceiling. This place really was a fuckin’ dump, stinking of stale cheap sex and rotten booze.
    “Baby Girl,” I whispered, my voice raw and painful to my own ears.
    Just by calling out to her, I could see her. She shone with an inner vibrant light, a cool sort of glow. She was clean, fresh, and untainted. She had the most incredible eyes I’d ever seen, so green, like sunlight filtering through mangrove leaves.
    My Baby Girl …
    God, I barely knew her, and I missed her so hard I ached.
    One touch, and I was lost.
    When I had taken her hand, I’d had no idea what I was doing, no idea that I’d no longer be wholly myself. Or maybe…she’d just made me aware that I was never whole—until I had found her.
    One kiss, and the green-eyed witch had snatched my soul.
    Fuck…that kiss .
    There was nothing, no sexual experience with anyone else, that compared to that one fuckin’ kiss. My dick had snapped to life the moment my lips touched hers, ready for whatever she commanded.
    Now, all I had was the memory of it, and it was the only thing that made my dick stand up at all anymore. I thought about it a lot. I thought about her a lot. It was the only way I