Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69577 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69577 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
I looked over to find Boone, one of the Dixie Wardens who lived on the same street as Birdee, staring at me thoughtfully.
“Where is she?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “Some guy in a fancy Tesla came to pick her up. She had a suitcase.”
Immediate disappointment assaulted me. “Damn.”
I’d been avoiding her hard the last few days, and I shouldn’t have.
She’d done nothing wrong.
It was me who’d stayed away for my own stupid reasons.
The shock of finding out that my sister was pregnant, and I couldn’t be a part of my niece or nephew’s life, had hit hard.
I was so fuckin’ lost in my own damn brain that I’d even missed a couple of meetings at the clubhouse that were mandatory.
“You got somethin’ going on you need to talk about?” he asked.
I scrubbed at my face with my hands, cursing the way that my life had been laid out for me.
“My sister is pregnant.”
Boone sighed. “You’re going to have to figure something out there.”
The Dixie Wardens, as well as the men that’d followed me here, all knew about my sister. We all knew about each other’s shit.
It wasn’t something that we could’ve hidden.
The president, Denver, had asked for it all. The club had taken a vote on everything—because no way was he allowing people he didn’t trust one hundred percent completely into his and his club’s life—and they’d agreed to allow us to come.
But that meant that they all knew my every transgression. My every failure in life.
And Bernice was definitely one of my biggest failures.
“Nothing to figure out,” I admitted.
“Clearly there’s something to figure out there if you’re hiding away for two days, and missing your own…” He shut up fast.
“My own what?”
“You’re gonna have to take that one up with Denver,” he muttered.
I pinched the bridge of my nose.
Shit was just not going my way the last few days.
“If it makes you feel better, I wasn’t in my home wallowing in self-pity,” I admitted. “I’m dealing with a bunch of bullshit with this poaching case. We’ve had three adult male moose killed in the last three days alone. And one caught in a trap that we had to euthanize.”
His gaze sharpened.
It would.
He was the local vet who serviced three counties. And when he wasn’t doing that, he moonlighted as the spare park ranger.
“Why haven’t I heard about this?” he asked.
“That I can’t tell you,” I said. “But I’m currently up to my eyeballs in these cases, and I’m trying to get it all figured out but it’s seriously a pain in the ass, and all the other game wardens are busy as fuck, too. Meaning, we’re spread thin.”
“Which I’m sure Denver knows.” He winced. “Sorry, man. I had to euthanize a family pet today that bit a little girl, and let’s just say I’m pissy.”
I jerked up my chin. “It’s fine.”
It wasn’t.
I should’ve been there last night. And the night before since they’d rescheduled to accommodate me.
“Fuck.” I looked at the door once again.
“What’s got you hung up about the girl?” he asked.
A whole lot of things.
None of them good.
“Probably nothing I should be pursuing,” I admitted.
He studied me for a long moment while I studied Birdee’s house, and then surprised me when he asked, “Want to come to the clubhouse with me? Then we can go grab dinner at Hopps?”
Hopps was owned by the club, and one of the only places in town that was local.
“Sure,” I grumbled as I gave the door one last glance.
Shit.
I had something wrong with my head.
I walked to my old truck and hopped inside. Boone followed suit in his own truck, then we both drove to the clubhouse.
It took nearly a half hour to get to the gated ranch that was quite a bit outside of town.
As we parked and got out, my eyes gazed longingly at the horses.
I liked to come out here quite a bit and ride.
That was one thing that I’d missed like a second skin when I was locked up.
When I’d gone on the run, so to speak, with Bernice, I’d landed at a cattle ranch right outside of town. I’d worked for both Bernice’s and my room and board, and made a pretty hefty paycheck while I was at it.
I didn’t know how much I’d love the ranch life until it was ripped away from me.
Now that I was out of prison, I found myself coming out here a lot just to spend time with the animals. Though, I went to Romeo’s place a lot because of that, too. Romeo had horses that came with his place when he’d moved up here. He’d taken to the horses, which was why he wouldn’t sell them to me when I’d moved out here myself.
It worked out well in the end, though. When I started my job as a game warden, I hadn’t realized how much spare time I wouldn’t have.