Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69063 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69063 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
And since she didn’t know where I lived, nor where my family lived, she hadn’t been able to get to Desi any other way but at school.
Something else I’d gotten a phone call about this morning after talking to my lawyer.
“Are you okay with that?” I asked.
“I’m okay with just about anything short of cold-blooded murder after what Eddison did,” she admitted.
That still made me sick to my stomach to think about.
Something that I hadn’t quite even been able to digest yet, really.
“Okay, well, I’ll be there as soon as I can,” I said. “And, if you’re feeling frisky, and want to start looking for houses for us…” I left that hanging, knowing it’d get her excited.
She didn’t disappoint, squealing like she used to do for ice cream when she was little.
“Okay!” she called. “What time?”
“Probably in a couple of hours, baby doll,” I drawled. “Love you.”
When I looked up from the ground I’d been studying while on the phone, it was to find every pair of Semyonov—and two Carters—eyes on me.
I studied them for a long moment before saying, “What I have to say isn’t for cop ears.”
Haunted by my TBR.
—Nastya’s secret thoughts
NASTYA
My brows rose as I turned to look at Auden.
“That means you, bro. Sorry,” I teased.
I knew he wasn’t leaving.
Maven would never leave after everything that had just gone down.
My heart was still palpitating.
I kept seeing my brother go flying straight into a trash can that was luckily plastic and full of bagged leaves.
The good thing was the leaves had broken his fall. The bad thing was he’d already been hurt, and we were pretty sure he’d rebroken the ribs that were already broken and healing.
Auden grunted and said, “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Then you’re gonna have to turn the cop off,” Maven said. “Because I get the feeling we’re about to hear something juicy.”
“You don’t just turn the cop off,” Auden grumbled.
“This time, you will, or I won’t talk to you,” Haze said, surprising us all with his forcefulness.
My gaze focused on Haze as I said, “He’ll be good.”
“It has nothing to do with being good or bad and everything to do with not having to denounce your morals and question whether or not you should go to the police with what you just learned,” Haze said. “Especially if you learn something about another police officer that you feel might be a threat.”
Auden and Haze studied each other for a long moment before Shasha broke in and said, “Everyone but Haze, Nastya, and me out.”
“What about me?” Dima asked. “I feel like maybe I should be here since I just rebroke three ribs.”
Shasha studied him before saying, “If I feel like it won’t get you in trouble, then I’ll tell you later.”
Dima sighed and said, “Can we still go to Jack’s, though? I was really looking forward to their pretzel and beer cheese sauce.”
“Y’all ride together. I’ll ride with Haze and Nastya,” Shasha suggested.
Auden sighed and said, “I really hate playing and following the rules.”
We waited until we were all piled into Haze’s cruiser—which luckily did not have a set of steel bars separating the front seat from the back—to start talking.
Shasha showed his impatience by pushing sideways into his seat, his leg hitching up to rest against the middle console and giving Haze his full attention.
Haze waited until he was out of the parking lot before saying, “How much do you know about my relationship with your sister?”
“I know that you ‘slept’ with her in a Whataburger, and you’ve been following her around for weeks,” he responded.
“Part of the job—following her around. As for the other thing, I won’t apologize for that. I’m really interested in your sister.” Haze stunned me.
No one ever stood up to Shasha.
It was refreshing to find someone that would.
“And I know that y’all stayed with each other last night,” he continued.
“How do you know that?” I wondered.
Shasha glanced back at me and snorted. “You’re delusional if you think that I’m just going to let some cop wiretap your phone, follow you around twenty-four-seven, and more, and think that I’m not going to protect you by having my own sources out there watching his every move.”
I sighed, my gaze snapping to Haze to find him completely unsurprised, as if he expected nothing less.
“Wonderful,” I said. “Continue, Haze. I’m dying over here.”
“This morning, I left her alone at her apartment,” Haze said.
“Which I’m not fuckin’ leaving you at by yourself anymore after this.” Shasha leveled me with a glare.
I opened my mouth to immediately deny that when Haze startled me by saying, “I agree.”
He could not have stunned me more.
My gasp of outrage was drowned out by Shasha snorting.
“Let me explain, please,” Haze urged, reading that I was two seconds away from blowing up.
My eyes met his in the rearview mirror.
I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him where he was begging me with pleading eyes to wait for him to explain.