Total pages in book: 189
Estimated words: 181808 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 909(@200wpm)___ 727(@250wpm)___ 606(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 181808 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 909(@200wpm)___ 727(@250wpm)___ 606(@300wpm)
“How?” Marty started placing the hamburgers on the buns.
“Because you’re the one ultimately responsible for his woman and son nearly being killed. If you hurt one of their women, it’s a death sentence.”
“So, you know I wasn’t the one who ordered Gundy to lose his shit and start shooting. I was in the kitchen with Charles when it went down. Gundy broke the rule about coming here. His mom is dying, and he wanted to take her on some big trip.
“We were arguing in the kitchen, and I told him to get his ass out of here and we’d talk about it later. When Gundy left the kitchen, he must have thought Larissa and the kid had been there the whole time. Before I could get out front, Gundy had already started shooting when the other two came in the door. I guess he thought she had called them.”
“Would you have ordered him to kill them if she had, or would you have stopped him if you had time?”
“We’ll never know, will we?”
“I guess not.”
He might not have answered her directly, but with her blinders removed where he was concerned, she was able to discern what she had believed—him having a sarcastic attitude was for show. In reality, he hid an extremely callous person who was willing to do anything it took to remain in the background to protect his own interests.
Wrapping the burgers tightly, he started packing them into a plain brown sack.
“Why?” she asked again, heartsick that he had used their friendship as a cover to come to Treepoint to launder money.
If the workers he had recruited hadn’t stolen merchandise, which had been logged as mail then replaced with packages of money to be retrieved on the other end, Marty would still be pretending to be a normal restaurant owner, not a criminal who didn’t care who got in his way as long as his identity remained a secret.
“I could tell you it’s because my ex-wives drained me dry and I needed the money for alimony payments, but I won’t. I got greedy. It was too easy. I ran off the regular customers. Of those who did come around, it didn’t take long to find out who was strapped for cash, willing to do anything for an extra payday. It’s not like I was asking them to steal the Mona Lisa. Between the diner, Charles’ two businesses, and my connections, we were making bank. I could keep track of everything right here, set up my cameras, and rake the cash in.”
“Meanwhile, you had Megan and me telling everyone how bad of health you were in if anyone grew suspicious.”
“I did.” Dumping the fries on top of the packaged burgers, Marty folded the top down. “I took advantage of every opportunity offered to me. Where I screwed up was involving The Last Riders with transporting the money to Ohio. It was easy to reel Charles in; he goes back and forth to Lexington. He’s made more money with me than his restaurants make in a month. He warned me not to use The Last Riders’ trucks. I should have listened.”
“Yes, you should have. Why didn’t you?”
“Stupidity.” He shook his head. “I always knew a woman would be the death of me. Saffron caught Gundy stealing, and he told her. I let her convince me to funnel more money through some contacts she had in Ohio. Then, once we had enough put away, we could take off and live wherever we wanted. That’s twice in my life I’ve let myself believe that bullshit.”
Marty picked up the bag of food and handed it to her. “Goodbye, kid. Take care of yourself.”
Tears welled in her eyes. Marty knew why she had come today. When she had left Nashville, she had gone by his restaurant to give him a goodbye present.
Taking the food, she had to swallow the lump in her throat. “I will. Goodbye, Marty.” Blinking back the tears, she turned and left the kitchen. The front of the restaurant was still empty.
The tears were sliding down her cheeks when she went out the door, where Moon was waiting outside. When he saw her, he started to walk past her.
“Thank you,” she said with a tear-filled voice.
Moon gave her a curt nod. “We’re even now.”
Unable to respond without breaking down, she forced herself to continue toward the parking lot. She rounded the corner of the diner and found Gavin leaning against the side of her car with his boots crossed.
“I had to say goodbye to him,” she told him as she grew nearer.
“I know.” Gavin raised his arms, spreading them open.
She walked into his arms and broke into tears. “I hate him so much,” she sobbed as his arms closed around her.
“I know that, too.” Leaning away from the car, he opened the door for her. “Get in.”