Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 113272 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 566(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113272 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 566(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
“If either of you need us, you know where we are,” he told them before striding out of the room with Kellan. They headed out of the police station. “What do you think is going on?”
Kellan leaned against his car, shaking his head. They’d brought two cars back with them in case they had to split up. “I don’t know.”
Eli paced back and forth. “I hate that we don’t know.”
Kellan nodded.
“She should come to us with any issues.”
Again, his brother nodded. Which was surprising. Maybe Kellan was more onboard with making Arabella theirs than he’d thought he was.
“But we have no right to insist and she keeps pushing us away,” Eli said with frustration.
The kisses they’d shared had been amazing. It was clear to see there was chemistry.
But something about that had scared her. Had it been too much too soon? Had they pushed too far?
What the fuck had gone wrong?
“She wouldn’t be able to do that if we were her guardians,” Kellan said suddenly.
Eli paused and stared at him. Damn. “I like the way you think. But how the fuck would that happen? We don’t live in Haven. And she’d have to agree.”
Kellan shrugged. “I just offered the solution. I don’t know how to make it happen. But I’m sure we can.”
“Do you want this too? Her? Being a guardian is a serious thing in this town.”
Kellan glanced away. “I don’t like feeling vulnerable. And she makes me vulnerable. She could easily be hurt, taken, used as a pawn to get to us.”
Eli nodded. It was a legitimate concern and one he understood. Their father had liked to use their siblings to keep the older boys in line.
If they had someone of their own, she’d have to be protected.
“We can keep her safe,” he said confidently.
Kellan eyed him for a long moment. “You want her.”
“I do,” Eli replied. “And so do you.”
Kellan didn’t say anything which was an answer in itself.
“So we work on winning her over,” Eli said. “That shouldn’t take long. She wants us.”
“She kicked us out and we haven’t spoken to her in days,” Kellan said.
Eli waved his hand through the air dismissively. “We can fix that. She clearly wants us. We’ll get her past whatever was going on.”
Kellan grunted. Clearly he wasn’t feeling as positive. But that was okay, Eli was used to Kellan taking a while to come onboard with his plans.
“Then once she’s willing, we become her guardians. And then she’s ours. Perfect. Done.”
What could go wrong?
20
“Hi, Arabella. Everything all right? You look tired.”
“So do you,” she said dryly as Jake stood and gestured to a chair in front of his desk.
But she couldn’t sit. She was too full of nerves.
Jake let out a huff of laughter. “Touché.”
She felt a stab of guilt. Was it a good idea to come to him with a complaint like this? It was clear that he had a lot on his plate and it wasn’t like she’d been harmed.
You still get a bad vibe off this guy.
Yeah, but she got a bad vibe off most people.
Except Eli and Kellan . . . shit. She had to stop thinking about them. Nothing was going to happen between them. She’d pushed them away.
They wouldn’t want anything to do with her after that. And she should be glad about that.
Although it seemed like they hadn’t wanted to leave just now.
“Hey, it’s all right. Tell me what you came in here to say. It must be important and I’m here to help you.”
“You look like you’ve got a lot on your plate, though. And what happened . . . it’s not that big of a deal—”
“Arabella, sit down,” Jake told her firmly.
Sheesh.
She sat before she even realized what she planned to do.
“How did you do that?” she asked. “I didn’t want to sit.”
“Comes with the territory,” he replied dryly. “What’s going on?”
She took a deep breath in.
Remember, he might be doing this to more people than just you.
“It’s about one of your deputies,” she told him.
Jake nodded encouragingly and she told him about last night. About how Deputy Doofus had basically dismissed her worries and been condescending and rude. As she spoke, Jake’s face grew darker and angrier.
“All right,” he said as she finished. “First of all, you were completely right to bring this to me. Not just because he’s my deputy but because it upset you and I’m here to help you.”
She nodded, feeling relieved. Part of her had been worried that he might dismiss her concerns. That he might tell her that she was being stupid or sensitive or something.
“You won’t need to worry about Deputy Dunn anymore. He’ll be leaving today.”
“Oh. You’re going to fire him?”
“Yes. Well, actually, I’ll be sending him back to where he came from. He’s just on loan to me for a while.”
“If he’s only here for a short while, I can put up with that. I don’t want you to be short-staffed,” she told him.