Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 72071 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72071 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
And, after my prayer was said, and hopefully sent to the right person, I prayed that for once in my life, God granted me the wish.
He’d been rather shitty to me over the course of my life, handing out obstacle after obstacle for me to overcome.
But this? He needed to give me this.
Liner. Liner, me, and Linnie. All together. All happy.
He needed to give me this, or that would be the last prayer I ever sent.
And as I closed my eyes, and reached for the phone, I hoped that I was making the right decision and Liner forgave me for it in the morning.
***
“Mommy?” Linnie called, sounding…excited? “Come here!”
I got up off the bed where I’d been lying with Liner and headed in the direction of my daughter, who sounded like she was in her room. But she wasn’t in her room, she was in mine.
I frowned when I finally found her. “What is it, Lin?”
She pointed toward the window, and I walked toward it, hesitation in each step that I took.
When I finally made it to the window, my heart was racing, and I was practically quivering in worry at what I’d see.
Steeling my spine, I brought my hand up to the blinds and split them apart with two fingers, inhaling deeply when I saw what she was calling me in there to see.
“Who are they?” Linnie asked.
I swallowed hard.
“Liner’s club,” I explained softly. “A-all of them.”
When I’d sent the text off from Liner’s phone last night, I hadn’t expected all of them to come. I’d honestly just expected Castiel since he said he’d be there ASAP.
But all of them? Holy crap.
I watched as Bayou dismounted from his bike, followed shortly by the man at his side, whose face I couldn’t see due to the helmet covering his head.
But then he turned and took the helmet off, and my breath caught.
Rome.
Rome had come, too.
I felt my belly tighten as emotion threatened to close my throat.
“Who are all of them?” Linnie asked. “Do you know their names? I want to go talk to them.”
I tried to catch her by the shirt before she could run away, but the slippery girl deftly avoided my grabbing fingers and was running before I could even think to move my feet.
Moments later, I heard the door opening and Linnie’s feet pattering on the front walk.
I looked back out the window in time to see Linnie, black hair flying, hauling ass straight toward the men.
Castiel, who saw her coming first, grinned and dropped down to his haunches.
She stopped in front of him as if she’d applied brakes to her feet, and then sternly addressed the man.
Castiel tossed his head back and laughed.
“Why is my club here?” Liner asked carefully.
I looked over at him standing in the doorway and bit my lip.
“Two out of three are out of the game,” I said softly. “Tara’s dead. My brother’s in jail for life after shooting at cops and basically murdering his own sister. It’s time for me to take care of the third one.”
Liner was already shaking his head. “There’s no guarantee that…”
I shook my head. “My dad’s not invincible. I’ll figure out a way to make sure that he can’t hurt us…but Liner, I don’t want to give up that life. I want to live there, with your family, with your club, and raise Linnie. You showed me what happiness could be like there, and I want to experience that for the rest of my life. This town is nice and all…but it’s not home.”
Liner’s face softened.
“And my club?”
“They’re here to help escort us home.”
“What about the house that I paid for?” he asked teasingly.
I smiled then. “I talked to Hoax on the way down here. He made it sound like there were quite a few people needing help just like me. And apparently I’m a millionaire. I’ll pay you back.”
He snorted and walked to me, gathering me up in his arms. “So what do we do about your dad?”
I thought about that for a long second and then shrugged. “I have no idea.”
Turns out, we didn’t need to figure out what to do about my dad. He had his own plans when it came to me, and I indirectly led him straight to me. And it had nothing to do with me calling Liner’s club, and everything to do with a glitch in the system.
Chapter 24
Bruise my esophagus.
-Things you wish you’d hear from your woman
Liner
“Let’s go!” Linnie practically bounced in her seat. “Can we stop to get beef jerky?”
I turned to look at Theo, who was already shaking her head. “Linnie, baby, we just stopped for breakfast. You didn’t even finish your meal. What makes you think you need beef jerky?”
Linnie shrugged and sat back into her booster seat with a small huff. “Whatever.”
I grinned and returned my eyes to the road.