Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 80176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Then I walked out, unsurprised to find Kennedy there, already waiting for me.
The moment the door shut, she was sprinting toward me.
Her face looked like shit, and she already had the start of a black eye forming.
I stopped just short of her and braced myself by dropping one foot back.
Thank God.
The moment she was close enough, she launched herself at me, practically strangling me with her arms.
I coughed slightly and held her just a little bit tighter, then remembered the whispered words between the two officers from earlier, right outside my cell.
“Let me see your arm,” I demanded, setting her away from me.
Resigned that I wouldn’t stop until I saw the state of her arm, she took one more step back and lifted the sleeve of her shirt up to her shoulder.
What I saw made my eyes go wide.
“Holy shit.” I delicately allowed my fingers to move down her arm, just barely brushing her skin.
The move was enough to cause her to flinch, though.
“I’m going to fuckin’ kill him,” I turned on my heel and started my stomp back inside.
She halted me by fitting her hand into the gap between my back and my waistband.
“Don’t,” she ordered. “I’m starving. Take me for food and then we’ll go back to the club and discuss what’s to be done next.”
I stopped, but only because I knew she wouldn’t let go. She’d let me drag her inside with me before she did.
I clenched my fists at my waist and dropped my head, counting to ten very slowly.
When I got there, I decided that ten wasn’t long enough to get this kind of anger under control and continued on to twenty.
Once I got to nineteen, I had some semblance of control, and lucky for me, when I turned around, she’d covered her bruises. Or, maybe it was lucky for Officer Rogers.
The man was dead. I didn’t care what I had to do, I’d beat the shit out of him before the night was through.
Nobody laid their hands on my woman, not like that. And if they did, they had to face the consequences.
No matter what.
I gave her the calm that she thought she needed, however. I let her think that I was back in control, when in reality I was in the red zone.
“Where do you want to go eat?” I teased lightly.
I could eat, too.
It’d been a while since I’d had something, and I’d need my strength to beat the living shit out of that asshole, Rogers.
Little fucker.
“I’d like to go to El Hat,” she said.
I winced.
I hated that restaurant. And it wasn’t ‘El Hat.’ It was ‘El Sombrero’ but everyone in the entire city called it ‘El Hat’ for some reason.
The seating was too cramped, and I couldn’t fucking breathe without blowing over the salt shaker on the next table.
“Okay,” I shrugged. If that’s where she wanted to eat, that’s where we’d go.
She held out my spare key and smiled apologetically. “I didn’t know what else to do.”
Before she could get in, though, I stopped her by placing one hand on her belly and pushing her against the truck door.
“I don’t care what you have to do to make sure that you’re safe,” I told her. “Even if you have to burn down the whole town around you. You’re safe and that’s all that matters to me. Got me?”
She blinked, and then nodded, eyes wide and—need I say it—turned on. “Yeah, I got it.”
Her voice was husky and sweet, causing a little bit more of my control to unravel.
“I fucking love you, you know,” I told her.
Her eyes were smiling as she said, “I love you, too, Evander Lennox. So freakin’ much.”
I meant to give her a sweet kiss. One that wouldn’t get us in trouble for public indecency.
But that sweet kiss turned into a straight-up ravaging the moment I touched my mouth down to hers, and she went wild in my arms.
The only thing that caused me to pull away from her, even for a second, was the amused throat that cleared directly behind me.
I looked over my shoulder and saw Rafe standing there.
“I have news.”
I growled.
“I have to take Kennedy to eat, then we’ll meet at the club.”
He shrugged. “I’m not really a team player yet. I’d rather give this to you now and have you take that information over.”
I looked back at Kennedy.
“You mind if he comes with us?”
Her smile was delicate at best.
“Not at all.”
I dropped another kiss to her mouth. “It’ll be okay, baby.”
She looked away. “Sure, it will.”
***
Two hours later, I was full of chicken fajitas and white cheese queso, staring at the bowl of dwindling chips with a worried expression.
“So you’re telling me that Balthazar had exotic peacocks…and that that dog killed the peacocks, too?”
Rafe nodded. “Information I’m getting from his two men, yeah. He went over there to confront her, just like you did. Gave him the same bitchy attitude.”