Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 92043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
“Good luck.” Z picked up his order sheets and a couple menus.
“Battle Tips?”
Battle Tips was a game they invented based on Battleship. They had a floor-plan game board with all their tables marked, and the winner had to buy drinks for everyone else on shift.
“You’re on.”
Chapter Two
Connelly slid into a window booth near the back facing the rest of the room. A habit he’d learned from his father many years ago. Never have your back to the door. You never knew who’d be coming through it.
He shrugged out of his leather jacket. It was warm in the place, too warm for the season even if it had been rainy a few hours ago. There was no need for the heaters to be on. It was still August for Christ’s sake. He’d never understood why people rushed into fall. Within a couple of weeks, New York would be overrun with scarf-wearing hipsters drinking pumpkin-spiced this and eating pumpkin-spiced that until it made him want to vomit.
And then there were the holidays.
Family holidays.
No. It was too early to drown in that pit of snakes.
He didn’t bother glancing at the menu since he knew what he wanted. But he needed a distraction to stop the various scenarios with a certain mysterious waiter from capturing his imagination. So he pulled out his phone and started his note app, scrolling through his observations from his latest witness interview and cataloging which answers he thought were lies and which needed to be followed up. He didn’t for a second believe the girlfriend when she insisted she didn’t know where the perp was, especially since he’d spotted a used condom in the bathroom trash. Either the girl was stepping out or she’d had a visitor last night. Neither option put her in a good spot. He’d place a pair of uniforms outside her apartment to see what happened.
“Are you ready to order?”
Connelly looked up to see a young woman with short brown hair and kind eyes waiting with her pen poised above her notepad, and kicked himself for the disappointment twisting his stomach. Maybe it had been a bad idea to come in after the collision outside. Maybe he should have turned right the fuck around and gotten back in his car. Because Jesus, he couldn’t let this weird attraction get under his skin. He couldn’t chase this lead.
And he definitely could not date someone who radiated so brightly it hurt his eyes.
Not when he’d been trained to stay in the shadows.
He cleared his throat and did his best to keep his eyes focused where they were supposed to be, not searching the dining room for signs of long black hair.
“My name’s Becca, I’ll be your server today,” the woman said with a patient smile, before repeating, slower this time, “Are you ready to order?”
“Uh, yeah.” He could tell himself he’d wanted Azariah as his server because the guy had memorized his weekly routine, but that wouldn’t be the whole truth. “I’ll have the turkey club with a side of dill pickles and kettle chips. A coffee, black. And a hot-fudge sundae for dessert.”
The truth was, he was stupid.
Becca nodded as she scribbled the order. “You got it, anything else?”
“No, thanks.” He went back to his notes.
A few minutes later Becca returned with his coffee. He smiled up at her and after she left, he immediately spotted Azariah. He looked exactly like he always had—normal. Except now Connelly felt like he’d had a peek behind a magic curtain and knew he wasn’t seeing the whole story. He gritted his teeth and forced his gaze back to his phone and away from his dark-haired, dark-eyed obsession. But the words blurred before his eyes. He was so unfocused that he jumped when it rang in his hands and answered without thinking.
“Con.”
Oh, shit. “Janie. I’m so sorry.”
“You hung up on me.”
He heard her sniffle and cursed inwardly. Great. “We got cut off and I got distracted. I apologize. Listen, I’ll be over after I take care of some things at work, okay? Shouldn’t take long, I promise I’ll get everything squared away. You don’t have to worry.” If he left early Raoul would cover for him, he was used to Connelly taking off now and then for family issues.
“Really?”
“Have I ever let you down?”
Janie sighed. “Never. You’re too good to us.”
His food arrived and Connelly nodded his thanks.
“You’re my sister.” And now he felt terrible for complaining, even inside his own head. Sure, maybe Janie wasn’t great at handling stress, but after what her ex had put her through, was it any wonder? She was the middle sibling but had never really developed independence like he and Matthew had. No matter that she was old enough to be a mother to two school-aged kids.
He hung up with another promise that he’d be right over and spent the next ten minutes scarfing down his sandwich. He was sipping his cold coffee when his sundae appeared on the table. He lifted his head to thank Becca for rushing it out but the words died on his tongue.