Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 67468 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67468 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
“Thanks for bringing my stuff over,” she whispered to Silvy, who had indeed packed her a bag of her belongings.
It struck something deep inside of me that out of all the stuff that she could’ve put on, she’d chosen my sweatshirt.
I held out my hand, and without hesitation, she walked right to me.
“You’re welcome.” Silvy watched as not only did she walk to me, but she buried her face into my neck and burrowed into my heat.
Everyone watched her as she did, and I could feel the happiness in my soul as I inhaled her scent.
Oh, and tried to hide my hard-on.
That was just a great thing to have going on when literally her brother and her father were right across from me.
“You okay?” I asked her.
Not only because of what had happened with her attack, but because of what we’d done in the wee hours of the morning afterward.
Something I wanted to explore more.
But being an adult meant doing adult-like things, and those adult-like things were going to keep my girl safe.
So I would bide my time and control myself.
At least, that was my intention until she moved so that her ass was pressed right up against my dick.
What little control I’d managed to gather started to unravel just by that one innocent move.
At least, at first I thought it was innocent, but then she shifted, allowing her supple ass to drag across my cock in a deliciously torturous manner.
“How are you, darlin’?” Silvain asked softly.
“I’m good,” she promised. “A little scared, to be honest, because I don’t know if it’ll happen again. But other than that, I feel fairly safe being here.”
“So that means that you’re not going back home.” Silvy nodded as if that was the perfect solution. “I was thinking about asking Karen to stay there to keep an eye on shit. That okay with you?”
“And, just sayin’, but you won’t be going back to work at The Marina. Your grandfather’s going to handle The Pizzeria, and we’ve decided to sell it. I’ll take over The Marina. You won’t be going back there again,” Silvain announced.
Alice froze. “I’m sorry, what?”
“You heard me,” Silvain said. “That’s over. You’re no longer working there on your own. You can go work with Etienne at the construction business, but until this is over, you’re not alone.”
His reiteration of the ‘not being alone’ thing was something that I wanted to agree with. Loudly.
But I kept my mouth shut and hugged her tighter to me.
“You need me, though,” Alice said. “Grandma’s still not herself.”
“Grandma’s fine now. She’s already begging Grandpa to leave. Which he’s doing soon. The Pizzeria is going on the market in the next few days.” Silvain crossed his arms as if he was ready for a fight.
Which I had a feeling Alice was willing to give him.
However, Aodhan broke in with, “I’ll buy it.”
Everyone blinked. “What?”
“I’ll buy it,” Aodhan said. “I worked there when I was younger. I know the ins and outs. I’ll buy it.”
Aodhan had, apparently, worked there from the moment he was old enough to hold a job, until he got a better, higher-paying one when he was twenty-one.
“I’m in the black,” Silvain said. “But we can talk about this later.”
Aodhan nodded, but I could see his brain already spinning.
He’d be buying the pizza place. He’d have it in the next few days, if that was my guess.
“Well then, I guess it’s good I have your new office ready,” Etienne said. “We got it finished a few weeks ago, but with everything going on, I didn’t want to tell you about it.”
Etienne smiled sheepishly, and I could see Alice practically beam inwardly.
Outwardly, though, she was shaking her head. “I don’t know what to say.”
“You won’t say anything,” Silvy muttered. “You’ll take a few days off. Then you’ll start back at an office that has top-notch surveillance, where you can always be safe, and we’ll find out how the hell Coran was able to get away with this bullshit.”
“He didn’t get away with it,” Sunny said. “It’s pretty obvious that y’all are set that it’s him. Not that I’m agreeing with you or anything. However, until we can prove his alibi false, we’re going to have to look for other proof and evidence that he was the one there.”
“We could always get him to confess,” Kobe supplied, tossing his water bottle back and forth in between his hands.
“On that note,” Sunny said. “I’m going to act like I didn’t hear that. And I’m gonna go check out a few more leads. In the meantime, don’t do anything illegal that you’ll get caught doing.”
With that, he jerked his head toward Silvy and Karen. “Let’s get to work.”
After they left, with the promise of coming back by to visit, Silvain left, too.
Only after he pulled his daughter in for a fierce hug that made my heart heavy to watch.