Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 125517 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 628(@200wpm)___ 502(@250wpm)___ 418(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125517 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 628(@200wpm)___ 502(@250wpm)___ 418(@300wpm)
“Larisa even scares Mama.” Arden giggled.
“She scares me too.” Her mom reached for a tissue when she started coughing as she tried to laugh again.
Arden straightened off the pillow to raise her mother higher to pat her back.
“You okay?” she asked when the coughing spasm ended.
“Yes.”
After she helped her lie back down, Arden resumed her position on the pillow.
“Go to sleep,” she told her. “I’ll leave when I see you’re asleep.”
“I don’t want you to drive home tired.”
“I won’t, I promise,” she assured gently.
Arden moved herself into a more comfortable position on the bed, listening to the sound of her mother’s breathing as the machine poured more oxygen into her lungs.
She was about to doze off when she heard her father turn onto his side.
“Your mother would have been miserable with Landen. He doesn’t know the difference between a can opener and a wrench.”
“You ever tell Mom you beat Landen up for asking her out?” Arden reached out her other hand to take her father’s.
“Baby girl, some things a woman doesn’t need to know.”
CHAPTER 45
THE VISITORS
“What’s up, bro?” Jesus greeted him as he strode into the club. Tilted backward in the chair with his legs propped on the table, Jesus was holding a mug of beer and using his stomach as a table. The motherfucker looked as if he didn’t have a care in the fucking world.
Brothers sitting at the bar and the surrounding table eyed him warily. He gave Puck a disgusted look when the brother moved to sit at the other side of the bar, and asked Kat for a beer.
Waiting for it, Doom glanced at the only two brothers unbothered by his glowering stare.
“When did you two arrive?”
“Shade and I got here about thirty minutes ago,” Moon answered. “We were having a good time until you walked through the door.” Moon nodded toward Jesus, who had moved to sprawl out in a booth. “I see you aren’t getting any mellower in your old age.”
“I’m younger than you,” Doom replied snidely, taking the beer from Kat.
He was lifting it to his lips when Wizard came in from the hallway, only wearing jeans. Scratching his stomach, Wizard gave him an irritated glower as he passed to head behind the bar.
As he poured himself a cup of coffee, the bar went quiet; even Margarita and Kat cautiously stayed out of Wizard’s way.
Wizard moved to face him with his coffee cup in hand. “Can you tell me why Jesus texted me you’re looking for a fight?”
Doom shrugged. “I have no idea.”
“I’m too tired for this shit, Doom. When you left last night, you were in the best mood I’ve seen you in since…” Wizard broke off to drink a sip of his coffee before setting it back down to scratch his stomach again. “Okay, since fucking never… This afternoon, I get woken up after I worked nine hours to load a fucking truck—to some bullshit about you picking a fight with Jesus. What’s the problem?”
Doom wasn’t fazed by Wizard’s irritation. “Why don’t we ask the motherfucker who texted you?”
“That would be me.” Shade met his gaze head-on. “I was trying to give you a break. Acted like you a few times, and it always came back to the same reason—a woman. And since I’m not in the loop anymore of who has your nuts in a twist, I gave Wizard a heads-up. So, if you start the same shit with me that you tried to start with Jesus, I’m going to stuff that glass up your left nostril and yank it out the right. Now, are you going to let me finish my beer in peace, or are we going to have a problem?”
As he considered his answer, Doom heard a cell phone ring. He glanced around and saw Margarita answer it then say something into the phone before heading to the kitchen. Curious, Kat walked to the doorway, unashamedly listening to Margarita’s conversation.
Next time he talked on a cell phone, he would make sure Kat wasn’t within listening range. In fact, Doom was surprised at how nosy Kat was being. It was unlike the woman.
Turning his mind back to the men waiting for his answer, Doom made himself deescalate the situation with Shade. He had been brewing for a fight, and since he couldn’t find the real source of his annoyance, he had settled on Jesus.
“No problem.”
“You’re good?” Wizard confirmed.
“Yes.” Doom went back to drinking his beer as Wizard reached across the bar top to fist-bump Shade’s and Moon’s hands.
“What are you motherfuckers doing here?” he asked amiably. “Viper didn’t say anything about you coming when I talked to him this morning.”
“Moon and I are only here for a few days,” Shade told Wizard.
Doom tuned out Shade and Wizard’s conversation, his thoughts back on the true cause of his discontent. Arden.