Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 86158 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86158 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
While I was irritated that he’d pointed out how much of a disadvantage I’d be in if Officer Asshole decided to do anything physical—it also made me pause. I’d never given the douche much thought because he hadn’t done anything aggressive. Once he’d stopped fucking with Kara and Draco, I’d kind of just put him in the annoying category and went on my way. Yes, I saw him more than anyone else, and no, it wasn’t the best part of my day—but it wasn’t as if he made me nervous. If anything, he just pissed me off most of the time. He was a creep—but I’d dealt with a lot of creeps.
“I know you can take care of yourself, honey,” Bishop said, on the edge of sleep. “Just keep your eyes open, yeah?”
“I will,” I replied quietly.
I closed my eyes and listened to the sound of his breathing, letting it lull me, finally, back to sleep.
Chapter 12
Bishop
Monday morning was a shit show. I woke up late for work, didn’t have time to stop for coffee and see Charlie at work, and realized that I’d put my t-shirt on backwards after I’d already gotten to the job site.
I hadn’t seen Charlie again since Sunday morning when I’d left her bed. When she’d given me a kiss good morning and told me she had shit to do, I’d taken her at her word. I wasn’t going to get all bent out of shape again, thinking she was avoiding me or putting me off. From the comments I’d heard at her party and the amount of time she’d spent away from the house—I knew she actually was just really fucking busy.
I hadn’t had a chance to talk to her again in the light of day about the cop that had been showing up at the coffee cart, which bothered me. She’d seemed pretty unconcerned with the whole thing, which made the back of my neck tingle. Something was off, even if she wasn’t seeing it.
I fucking hated that there wasn’t anything I could do for her. I knew that if the guy pulled something, there wouldn’t be a punishment in the world that would stop me from going after him—but he hadn’t done anything. Yet. And that meant that there wasn’t a whole hell of a lot I could do. Keeping my nose clean in all respects was fucking important. I was still meeting with my parole officer every week, proving that I was doing just that.
Having my hands tied drove me out of my goddamn mind. That was the only excuse I had when I waved Casper down when I saw him out on the gravel driveway to the house.
“Hey man, you got a minute?” I asked, jogging over to him.
“Sure, kid,” he said, swinging his leg off his bike. “What’s goin’ on?”
“I was talkin’ to Charlie this weekend—”
“Any sentence starts that way makes me automatically brace,” he joked.
“She said somethin’ about that guy—the cop that was hasslin’ Kara—showin’ up at her work a couple times a day.”
“What?” Casper replied, his entire body shifting from the relaxed way he’d been leaning on his bike.
“She said he comes by every day, sometimes twice a day.”
“The fuck?” Casper said quietly.
“I don’t know,” I said, lifting my hands in a don’t-shoot-the-messenger gesture. “She seemed pretty unconcerned, but it fucked with me. Don’t know why he’d be showing up all the time when she clearly wants nothin’ to do with him.”
“Because he’s lookin’ to change her mind,” Casper spat. “Or is willin’ to look past it.”
“Just thought I’d give you a heads up,” I said. “I’m here all day so there’s not much I can do.”
“And you’re still answerin’ to a parole officer,” Casper replied knowingly.
“That, too.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Casper said firmly, then he shot me a small smile. “You keep your ass on the outside if you can.”
“I’m tryin’,” I replied with a sigh. “I pretty much go to work and go home.”
“Finish out your time,” he said, nodding. “Sucks, man. I get it. But your pretty ass doesn’t wanna be inside without someone at your back, and we don’t have any men in county at the moment.” He paused for a moment. “I’ll take care of this. You just worry about gettin’ those kitchen counters my woman wants installed.”
“I don’t work with granite,” I said with a laugh. “But I’ll keep an eye out and make sure they do shit right.”
“Good man,” Casper replied.
As I walked away, I felt a little better about the Charlie situation. At least now her pop knew what was going on and I was sure within minutes the rest of the club would, too. It wasn’t ideal—I wanted to take care of it—but it was the best I could do under the circumstances.
The day went by quickly because there were always a thousand tasks to get done, and by the time I said goodbye to Harry and the guys, I was dragging ass. Farrah hadn’t ever shown up to chat and look through the place, so we’d actually gotten a lot done. I wondered if she realized how much she slowed things down when she made her unexpected visits and then decided that she probably just didn’t care. She wanted to be involved in every step—which was a new experience for most of us. I’d spent a lot of time building new places in developments that hadn’t even been sold yet. You get a set of plans, the shit you need is ordered, and you get to work building a few cookie cutter houses on each block. It’s easy and pretty routine—which wasn’t the case with Casper and Farrah’s place. They continually thought of new shit they wanted or made changes and it slowed everything way down.