Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 117379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
I snickered.
“Bikers are crazy,” Kit said, rolling her eyes. “All caveman and bullshit. You’ll never catch me with one of them, I promise you. Life is too short to let a man call the shots.”
“And yet you’re the one trying to convince me to go home to Coeur d’Alene. You do realize it’s infested with them, right?”
She opened her mouth to argue, but Cookie’s phone rang and we all froze. What now? Cookie grabbed it.
“It’s Maggs,” she told us, her face nervous as she answered. “Hey, hon … What’s up?”
She listened for a minute, her eyes growing wide. Then she screamed and started jumping up and down. Seconds later the kitchen door burst open and Deke ran through, gun in hand. Cookie burst into tears, a huge smile transforming her face.
“Bolt’s coming home!” she yelled “He got parole. It’s a fucking miracle. They’re actually letting him come home!”
Kit and I burst out screaming and hugging each other. Deke collapsed back against the door frame, and for the first time in my life I saw him smile.
“About time we got some good news,” he said. “Fuck. Didn’t see that coming. Idaho never paroles ’em if they won’t confess to the charges.”
“Let me talk to Maggs,” I demanded, reaching for the phone. Cookie laughed and handed it over. “Maggs! I can’t believe it! When did you find out?”
“He called Friday afternoon but made me sit on it,” she said. “It killed me not to tell you ladies, but I got the go-ahead this morning. I guess he had some business he wanted tied up before word got out? I dunno. The parole hearing was two weeks ago, but you don’t get a decision right away … We didn’t think it would happen. He won’t admit he did anything wrong, and you know how that goes. They aren’t supposed to consider anything but his behavior inside, but the parole board does whatever the hell they want.”
“How?” I asked, stunned. “How did he pull it off?”
“I don’t know,” she said, obviously crying. “I just don’t know. I don’t care. All I know is he’ll be coming home. Finally. I have to go. I have phone calls to make, and so much to do. We’ll have a big party for him, of course. You’ll come back for it, won’t you?”
“Of course,” I said. “Oh my God, of course I will!”
Then Kit was demanding the phone. I saw Cookie hugging Deke out of the corner of my eye as more brothers crowded into the kitchen.
Thank God.
We needed this. We needed it in a big way.
Later that night, Hunter finally got in touch. I hadn’t realized how nervous I was until his text popped up. Kit’s words had been eating at me, making me doubt him.
HUNTER: How are you doing? Can’t call, no privacy
ME: Good. Still at home. Kit got in touch early this morning. She’s fine. Dad wants me back in CDA, of course. Kit is trying to get leave from school
HUNTER: You planning to go?
ME: Do I have a good reason to stay? We decided to stay away from each other but then last night happened … I don’t know what’s going on between us.
I waited for his response, holding my breath. We hadn’t discussed the future or anything between us. It’d never been a secret that he wanted to have sex with me, but I wasn’t stupid enough to think that meant anything serious.
I had hope, though. Before everything fell to shit and he’d kidnapped me, we’d talked every day. We shared jokes and laughed and I’d felt like I could tell him anything. So we hadn’t spent much time together in person, but that didn’t mean we hadn’t spent time together … That had to count for something, right?
Hunter still hadn’t answered. Shit. Had I pissed off everyone I knew over a one-night stand? For one horrible minute I thought I might throw up.
The phone buzzed again.
HUNTER: Sorry. Lot of shit all around me. I hope to hell you have a reason to stay in Portland … I just told my whole club about you, that I plan to make you my old lady. Skid can go fuck himself, along with his bullshit reasons for us to stay apart. Hoping I didn’t do it for nothing?
I sighed, feeling the tension drain out of me. Okay, I hadn’t imagined whatever it was between us. Then what he’d said hit me—he’d told his club he wanted me for his old lady.
Holy hell … that was practically a proposal!
ME: You almost gave me a heart attack. For a minute I thought maybe that was just a one night stand. Old lady? That’s a big step … but I like the sound of it …
HUNTER: Def not a one night stand. We need some time together, time to talk. This is insane.