Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69303 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 277(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69303 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 277(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
There was a long moment of silence and then, “This is not happening.”
I looked to Eugene, who hadn’t said much of anything just yet, but I could see him inching his way down the length of his car, likely aiming to escape.
The aunt and both nieces noticed his escape attempt, though, and they all started yelling at him at once.
He froze, eyes huge as saucers, and stood there dumbly as he tried and failed to come up with a good enough excuse for his exit.
Surprisingly, it was him explaining to the sexy little number who’d caught my eye at the restaurant.
“Listen, Dru,” Eugene said. “I can explain everything. You just have to let me do that.”
“Explain to me? What are you talking about? How about you explain to your girlfriend?” she suggested, then hung up on her sister.
She shoved her phone into her pocket and stared at her aunt for a long second before she said, “You know he’s dead, right?”
Jennifer nodded, her face solemn.
“You knew that he’d been dying, and you still didn’t go home?”
Again with the nodding.
“Okay.” She shook her head. “As long as you know that. I’m not going to make you explain this.” She pointed at the two in front of her. “Just leave me the hell out of it. And don’t make me attend y’all’s farce of a wedding, Eugene, when we both damn well know that you don’t care about her. Also, just sayin’, but you may be ‘reformed’ as you’d once said, but Daniella isn’t. This is going to get ugly, and you know it.”
Eugene didn’t say anything, but he did glance over at Jennifer.
When neither one said anything more, Dru took that as her cue to leave.
She headed back down the length of the street and walked right past me before I fell into step a couple of yards behind her.
She stopped when she got to the gate, unsure how to get out.
I pulled out my app and let her out, despite my every instinct screaming at me to make a move.
I waited until she was well and truly out of the line of sight before I headed to my own car and went to my home away from home—a.k.a. a small studio apartment near the airport.
It was everything I wanted it to be.
Impersonal, and not a hint of memory.
Sometimes, when I was at home, I felt like I couldn’t breathe.
All the memories of my son there, it made me want to scream.
Even though I hated being in DC with a passion, I hated being at home in Dallas even more.
Everything in Dallas reminded me of my son, Tavi.
The grass in the front yard—he loved when we drew patterns in it.
The old swing set outside—we’d built it together from the ground up.
Passing by his school every single day—seeing the kids out there where my son should’ve been felt like a dagger straight to the heart.
But the worst part of all was that I couldn’t be with my own found family—the Truth Tellers MC—without feeling like my heart was breaking.
I loved the guys from the club.
I would do anything for them.
But they were all moving on. Even the one that I’d related to the most—Gunner.
They all had kids. Wives. Responsibilities.
The only one left that didn’t was Jasper, and he was as touchy-feely as a cactus.
He didn’t want to be messed with, and he certainly didn’t want to hear about petty problems.
In the beginning, being a Texas State Representative had been a means to an end. Get the person that was responsible for my son’s torture and get out.
Well, I got the person responsible—and ridded the world of a violent predator—but I found myself staying.
Not because I wanted to be in politics—I’d rather have my left nut amputated—but because no one else was fixing this place, it might as well be me.
And, the bonus part was that I got to breathe here, even if it felt like I couldn’t sleep with my eyes closed.
One bad part about not having my club around me was that I never quite felt safe enough to let go.
If you let go here, you were swallowed whole.
I got into my car and was heading out into traffic back to my place when my phone rang.
“Hello?” I answered.
“Brother.” Webber’s deep drawl filled my car. “When are you coming home?”
I hesitated.
I hadn’t planned on coming home.
There were things to do here, and happiness to avoid…
“What do you need?”
There was a long pause and then, “Why aren’t you coming home, Finnian?”
Ruh-roh. He’d real-named me.
“I don’t know,” I admitted.
“How about you make it tonight?”
“I can make it tonight if you need me to make it tonight.”
There was a pause and then, “It needs to be tonight.”
I cursed. “What’s going on?”
“I’ll explain when you get here.”
Fuck.
Three
I seized the day, but I forgot to lift with my knees, so I also seized my back.