Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69424 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69424 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
I knew a dismissal when I heard one.
“Thank you, Jasper,” I said as I gathered the cookies, leaving the box we’d eaten out of for him to snack on by himself.
Jasper only grunted a “you’re welcome” and crossed his arms over his chest.
I drove out of the shop once he opened the large bay doors, and forced myself not to look back.
Seven
Sometimes I say “don’t be crazy, Hush” but I don’t always listen to myself.
—Jasper to Calliope
JASPER
As if things couldn’t get any worse.
Now I had to deal with Maxine.
And Bernie.
“You’ll have to go make contact.”
Webber.
When he’d gotten to the shop, he was sounding pretty fuckin’ pissed.
Which was understandable.
Hell, I was, too.
I’d led this mess here, and now it was my turn to clean it up.
Fuckin’ hell.
“I had Apollo send the address to your phone,” he said. “Man, I need to warn you about something.”
I frowned. “What?”
The fact that he felt like he needed to warn me had the hair at the back of my neck standing up on end.
“Bernie.” He cleared his throat. “She has a kid.”
I frowned. “A what?”
“She has a kid,” he continued. “Apollo was trying to look into the kid more, but man, he looks exactly fuckin’ like you.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose and was already ready to deny having a kid, but Webber kept talking, stalling my outburst.
“Kid’s around seven,” he said. “Lines up really well with when you left New Orleans.”
Bernie and I had a great year together, but where she wanted kids and a house and marriage, I wanted a break. I didn’t want to be tied down—who would want me? I didn’t want to be responsible for other people—I didn’t have the mental capacity at the time to deal with that kind of relationship when I could barely function on my own.
Hell, at the time, I could barely commit to a gym, let alone another person.
But we’d had fun for a year.
And when she’d given me an ultimatum, marriage or she walks, I’d chosen my freedom.
That’d been when I’d decided to take the FBI up on their undercover operation with the Truth Tellers MC.
I’d been desperate to get away, not wanting to give Bernie any illusion that I was willing to stay and make a go of the relationship.
Hell, Bernie had been a great woman.
In fact, if there’d been one person that I might’ve been able to settle down with it’d have been her. At the time, anyway.
Even now, though I wouldn’t mind catching up to her, there was never going to be a chance of more.
“All right, I’ll head over now.” I paused. “Hey, do you think that Apollo has something that I can slip into their place? We can listen in on their conversation and figure out if there’s something she’ll say after I leave.”
“Hold on,” he said. “Apollo’s seeing what he has.”
I waited as I walked to my bike, angry as hell that I had to deal with that—with Bernie and Max—when I’d had better company, for him to get back to me.
“Apollo’s going to meet you there,” Webber murmured. “Keep your eyes open. Where there’s one, there’s more.”
I agreed with him on that.
I’d kept sending my help away because I didn’t want them to know how deep and entrenched I was getting with the Truth Tellers. It’d been when I started to slip away from my assigned partners that I knew that I’d slipped over the edge.
No longer did I believe that I was a cop.
I was a Truth Teller, and all cops were suspect.
The moment that it became us—the Truth Tellers—and them—the cops—I’d known it was my time to turn in my resignation.
I’d not been working for the cops for a year when Webber had found out.
I’d never felt such an intense sense of loss until that day.
I’d finally found the place that I’d belonged and…
“Are you even listening to me, man?” I jolted at the sound of Webber’s voice.
“No. Lost in thought.”
Webber sighed. “Get your head in the game. We don’t want them here, and you need to make sure they leave. If I have to make sure…”
Fuck.
“I’ll make them leave.”
The ride to the address Apollo had sent me took me to fuckin’ Colleyville, outside of Dallas.
I was already pissed as hell I had to make this drive in the middle of goddamn Christmas traffic, but it made it worse that they lived in the fuckin’ rich bitch neighborhood that would definitely notice someone driving a loud ass motorcycle through their fancy streets.
I’d gotten the beast when I’d turned sixteen, scraping and saving to buy it with my dad’s help.
The thing needed some work, but the engine still purred.
But that didn’t make it any less of an eyesore.
I pulled over as close to the neighborhood as I could get and stopped.
Apollo pulled up behind me a few moments later and got out.