Total pages in book: 150
Estimated words: 136791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 684(@200wpm)___ 547(@250wpm)___ 456(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 684(@200wpm)___ 547(@250wpm)___ 456(@300wpm)
"I talked to Roman and Luke about it. They'd be down to mentor kids. We could probably convince some of the other guys to help out too—give these kids something to do other than get involved with all the gang bullshit around here."
"Who would run it?"
"I'm sure we could find someone qualified. Or I could do it."
"What about your job?" she asks, her brows furrowing.
I shrug my shoulder. "I'll still work with the Gang Unit. It'll just be a little less often."
"You want to quit?"
"I've been thinking about it," I admit, still tracing my thumb along her bottom lip. It's so damn soft. My job is important to me, but my family is more important. "I hate worrying that someone I pissed off might come after you and TJ and the baby."
I've seen it happen far too often. Most people don't mess with my family because they know I will fuck their worlds up…but Kaleo came after January before she killed him. Gangs, MCs, and cartels have targeted my friends and their families. I worry history might repeat itself. January, TJ, and the baby are the most important things in the world to me. I don't want to risk their safety. I do as much as humanly possible to protect them, but we live in a rough neighborhood with new bullshit popping up all the time. It worries me.
"Do you want to quit?" she asks.
I huff out a reluctant breath and then shake my head. "This city needs motherfuckers like me, baby girl."
She eyes me for a moment and then sits up, straddling my hips. "If you seriously want to do this, I'm in," she says, making me smile. "But I think we need to compromise."
"On what?" I ask.
"On you quitting."
"I want you guys safe more than I want my job, little monster."
"What if we move somewhere safer?"
My eyebrows shoot upward, shock running through me. I've wanted to move her somewhere safer pretty much since I got back to Los Angeles, but she was never ready. And I get it. This house is the only piece of Titan and her mom that she has left. I'd never ask her to give that up, even if getting her into a better neighborhood would make me happy as hell.
"I love this neighborhood," she whispers as if reading my mind. "I grew up here. I fell in love with you here. It's such a huge part of my life, but I don't want TJ and the baby going through the same things me, you, and Titan went through. You've worked so hard to clean up this neighborhood and make it safer since I killed Kaleo, but you can't take down every gang that pops up. I don't want TJ and our daughter to grow up thinking that hearing gunshots at all hours of the night is normal. I don't want someone targeting TJ like Kaleo targeted you and Titan."
"You're serious."
It's not a question, but she nods anyway. "I'm ready to move," she whispers. "And I know that, regardless of where we live, Titan and my mom will always be with us. We won't be leaving them behind if we leave here."
"We will never leave them behind," I promise her. "They're part of us. That won't ever change."
"I know that. I think I've always known that, but I just wasn't ready before, you know?"
"I get that, baby girl. If you seriously want to move, we'll start looking. But if you aren't ready, you just say the word, and we'll stay here. Regardless of where we live, I will keep TJ and the baby safe, I promise you that."
"I know," she says, giving me a bright smile.
The trust in her eyes takes my breath away.
Fuck, I'll never get used to the fact that she loves me and trusts me to protect her and our family. Her unwavering faith in me makes me feel like a goddamn king.
"But I think your job is important, and it's important that you keep doing it. You've saved so many people, Cade." She smiles like she's proud of me. "I don't want you to give that up because you think you have to do it. If you want to start a program for kids, I can run it."
"What about your job?"
"My job was never about the teaching, necessarily. It was about the kids. All I ever wanted to do was work with kids. I can still do that by helping run this after-school program you want to start," she says, tracing her finger over one of the tattoos on my chest.
Not long after I was cleared of the murders, I told her what each and every one of them meant to me. They're all memories of her that I had inked into my skin so I would never forget how much she loved me and how it killed me to know I failed her. Aquarius—her zodiac sign—is an air element. She was always my air, the thing that kept me breathing.