Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 110549 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110549 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
“Really? Because she hasn’t been seen anywhere in town for the past week. Looks suspicious on her part,” he retorted, getting pissed off. With us standing in her corner, West had protection. And the officials in this town fucking hated that.
Jessie clenched his jaw. “Lucky, get the fuck out of my garage.” West was a sensitive topic for both of us right now. She still hadn’t regained her speech, and she still couldn’t write, though she was beginning to express more with her facial expressions and with gestures, according to Dr. Gresham.
It was painful as hell to be without her right now, though.
“West is unavailable,” I told Lucky, trying to keep Jessie from getting his ass locked up. That was the last damn thing West needed to get wind of. It would send her back in her recovery. “She’s been sick, so she’s been in the hospital,” I lied. I narrowed my eyes at him. “And before you go popping off at the mouth like you have a bad habit of doing,” Lucky scowled at me, “Jessie and I still have to work. We still have fucking bills to pay. We see her when we can.”
Though, the truth was, we hadn’t seen her since she had gone in for her first session with Dr. Gresham. Her doctor didn’t want to run the risk that seeing us may set her back. She was in a critical stage of her recovery.
“Things around here were peaceful until she came back,” Officer Lucky retorted. I gritted my teeth. Shit in this town was never peaceful. They just didn’t have anyone easily accessible to pin all of the crimes and the blame on. “I can’t say that I’m sad to see her hospitalized.”
I blocked Jessie when he lurched forward, stopping him from lunging at Lucky. Jessie was seething, his fists clenched at his sides. “Fucking let him go, Jessie,” I told him, trying to talk him down. “He doesn’t fucking know her—not like we do. All he knows is what he has been conditioned to believe,” I reminded him.
Lucky sent us a dark look that I knew meant trouble before he walked out. He wasn’t letting this go easily.
“Fucking hate this place,” Jessie snarled as soon as Lucky pulled off the property. He stepped back from me and stormed back over to the car he was working on. “I never truly hated this town until West came back.”
“When she’s ready to be released, I want us to have a place away from here. I don’t want to bring her back here, Jessie.”
Jessie nodded in agreement. “We’ll lock her mom’s place up—put the car in the garage. She can decide what she wants to do with all of it when she’s out.” He looked over at me. “Are you prepared to sell your granddad’s place?”
I blew out a harsh breath. Was I? No, not one bit. He was the one person in this world besides Jessie that I’d been able to rely on. But what I was ready for didn’t matter. West would never survive here, and I loved and cared about her too fucking much to force her to endure this hell hole of a town.
“Yeah,” I told him gruffly. “If he were alive now, he’d tell me to do what I had to in order to take care of her. So, yeah,” I nodded my head, “I’m going to sell it.”
“Question is, where are we moving to?” Jessie asked me. “She’s still going to need to do sessions with Dr. Gresham, so we can’t go too far from the center.”
We both looked up at the sound of a sports car driving onto the gravel lot of the garage. I released a low whistle as I ran my eyes over the Porsche Spyder. “Hot fucking damn,” I breathed.
Jessie grunted in agreement as the driver slid out of the car. Never fucking seen him or that car before, so he sure as hell wasn’t a local. The stranger pushed his shades to the top of his head and flashed us a grin. My eyes widened in recognition.
No goddamn way Julian Markos, the God of the football field, was standing in front of our shop.
“Holy fuck—is that Julian Markos?” Jessie whispered.
“Pretty sure.” I moved out of the garage, leaving Jessie behind. Jessie would need a moment. He was a bigger football fanatic than I was and a hardcore Patriots fan, which was the team Julian played for. I held my hand out to Julian. “Lincoln Reeds,” I introduced myself. “How can we help you?”
He shook my hand, and then reached over and shook Jessie’s, who had come out to stand beside me. “Julian Markos,” he greeted as if he wouldn’t already know. “Actually, I don’t need any work done.” He shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “I decided to come out here to meet you guys. I met West.”