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)
“You give this information to the cops?”
Rafe looked at me, and then over to Kennedy, who was still shoveling food into her mouth from her plate. Rice and beans. Yuck.
Assured that she wasn’t paying as much attention as she would have normally if we had her full attention, I nodded at Rafe to continue.
“You know I can’t do that,” he muttered. “Part of the gig.”
Rafe wasn’t here for just me. He was here for a few things. One of those things was a lot bigger fish than Balthazar.
Balthazar was a tiny little guppy compared to the massive, five-hundred-pound tuna that he was after—whatever that may be.
I gritted my teeth.
“Well, how do you suggest I get this information to the right people?”
“Call your brother.”
I looked over to Kennedy, who was no longer eating, and grimaced.
My apologetic eyes flicked up to Rafe, and I winced.
He shrugged it off.
But I knew that shrug wasn’t a throw-away move. He trusted me to take care of her and, essentially, him.
If she told the wrong people that Rafe wasn’t just here to help out at Hail Auto Recovery, people would start asking questions. Questions led to answers. Answers led to death.
It was a vicious cycle, and I wouldn’t put Rafe in danger like that. Not when he’d had my back when nobody else did.
Still did.
He was putting his own mission in jeopardy to ensure that I got out of this whole fuckin’ mess unscathed, and I wouldn’t let him down by allowing Kennedy to do anything that could possibly harm him. Even inadvertently.
“Okay,” I said. “Why my brother?”
I didn’t like talking to my brother. Talking to my brother led to me getting angry, and I’d already had one too many visits with jail this week.
The old feeling of claustrophobia had reared its ugly head while I’d been in there for those few hours, and it’d been enough to remind me that I didn’t want to do that shit again. I’d run away to Mexico or fuckin’ Timbuktu if I had to in order to stay out of jail.
The only problem now was that I would have to take someone with me.
But I could do it.
I always had a backup plan.
It was funny that Rafe and Kennedy had mentioned who the rest of the boys had brought in. Silas, the man who was offering up whatever information he could dig up on Balthazar and the police chief was the same man who had helped me with my backup plan— the one that was going to get Kennedy and I out of the country if it ever became necessary.
I just hoped that I never had to use that plan, because using that plan meant never coming back, and despite the fact that my family was all a bunch of assholes, I would still worry about them.
“Your brother, I think, saw the error of his ways,” she wiped up what was left of the sour cream from her enchiladas with one finger. She brought the white cream to her mouth and licked her finger clean before continuing. “He wants to help, even though he’s not sure how.”
I gritted my teeth against the moan that threatened to spill from my lips at the sight of her licking her finger clean.
“Goddamn,” Rafe muttered, looking away.
I grinned at him.
Kennedy had no fucking clue what she did to people. Even a man like Rafe; a man I’d never seen with another woman in the entire ten years that I’d known him, wasn’t immune to her innocent little move.
“I’ll call him. Give him the information,” I cleared my throat and stood up. “Thanks for all that you gave us, Rafe.”
Rafe wasn’t stupid.
He knew that I was more than affected by Kennedy’s impromptu show.
“But wait, I haven’t eaten my sherbet yet!”
I looked down at the colorful frozen dessert that the waiter had put down in front of her the minute that I’d paid the check and picked up one of the spoons that hadn’t been used. “It’s to-go sherbet, now.”
Then I hauled her up by her hand and pulled her in my wake, all the while listening to Rafe’s chuckling laughter behind us.
“Evander,” Kennedy said, tugging lightly on her arm. “What are you doing?”
I pulled her with me until we were out the door.
The moment that we were buried in the shadows of the building, I pushed her up against the brick wall and dropped my mouth down onto hers.
Again, it was only meant to be something short and sweet, but the moment my lips touched hers, I forgot all about short and sweet. All I wanted was her. All I tasted was her. All I craved was her.
Her hands went to my shoulders, and one of those shapely legs lifted to curl around my hip.
I dropped one of my hands to that leg and leaned into her, allowing her to feel what she did to me.