Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68515 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68515 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
He did once he saw that Jeremiah wasn’t going to answer him if he wasn’t under control.
“What the hell is going on?” Erich seethed, packing down his anger.
Jeremiah left the room, came back a few seconds later, and threw something onto the front of the table that we were all gathered around.
Easton, to our right, hissed out a breath.
Haggard, to my left, said something muted, but I could tell whatever it was wasn’t good.
“What the fuck is that?” Erich asked.
Erich knew exactly what it was.
“Dance Fever?” Jeremiah drawled. “Apace. Goodfellas. Great Bear. Fentanyl. You know, the shit you’re smuggling/selling/making out of a restaurant that I co-own with you.”
I had no clue what fentanyl was, but I had a feeling it was bad. Very, very bad.
“I’m not…” Erich hissed when Jeremiah leaned forward, glared hard at him, and said, “I’m not a fuckin’ fool, Erich. I know drugs when I see it. And your whole back storeroom is full of the shit.”
Erich didn’t answer.
In fact, he looked downright bored now, as if he was packing every single emotion in tight as to not let his ex-stepfather see.
“That’s news to me,” he lazily drawled. “Maybe it was the managers.”
I snorted. Which sadly brought Erich’s attention to me.
“You know.” He looked at me like I was now an interesting development to him. “She worked here for a time. I haven’t been in that storage closet in years. But she has.”
That was a flat out lie, and he knew it.
I’d never left the kitchen.
“You’re telling me that not only did she leave you for your stepfather, making her well and truly a piece of trash… but she also dealt drugs out of your place of business?” Rachel screeched.
I whipped my attention toward her. “I know you’re not that dumb.”
Rachel opened her mouth.
“I didn’t even know what that stuff was until Jeremiah said the words,” I told her bluntly. “And your blind devotion to your son is downright comical. Not only did it ruin your marriage, but it’s about to make you an accomplice in something I don’t quite think you’re ready to handle.”
Rachel’s back straightened like someone had straight up yanked her up by a chain.
“I don’t know who you think you are…” She stopped when Jeremiah said, “Enough!”
“This is all going to be gone tonight,” Jeremiah said stiffly. “Price will come in here and clean the entire place up. In the morning, you will meet me at the lawyer’s office and either sell me your half, or I’ll sell you mine. No negotiation. Borrow the money. Sell your car. Sell your house. But make sure that you have the cash by tomorrow morning, or else.”
“You can’t do that,” Erich hissed.
“I can, and I will,” Jeremiah disagreed. “This was the one place that you had left to yourself. And you ruined it. Congrats.”
Jeremiah caught my hand and led me out the door, leaving whatever he’d brought out from the storage closet on the table in plain sight.
“Aren’t you going to go wipe your fingerprints or whatever off of that?” I asked worriedly.
Jeremiah looked down at me with amusement shining in his eyes. “I would, yes. However, Price is… nope. He’s here now.”
Jeremiah pointed at two very large utility vans pulling into the parking lot.
Price pulled right up to the door, gave a chin jerk, and then started pulling shit out that I’d never seen before in my life.
An industrial vacuum. Chemicals. You name it, he had it in the van.
“Price cleans up messes,” Jeremiah explained. “Usually, those messes are a little bit more… intense than this one. But he’ll clean this one up all the same. And destroy whatever it is that Erich has in there. By morning, this place will be so clean that you won’t even notice that it’s the same restaurant.”
“Are you going to buy this one from him, too, do you think?” I asked as we made our way to his bike.
My belly was full, the day was almost done, but despite that nastiness in there with his ex-wife and Erich, I’d had a great day.
“You ready to go for that ride home?” he asked, pulling his suit jacket off.
My mouth watered when the white button-down shirt was revealed.
I’d been sort of sad when he’d covered that shirt up earlier, seeing as it fit him like a well-used glove. But the man pulled off the suit look, too.
He offered me the jacket, and I gladly slipped my arms through the holes.
He caught the lapels on either side of my chin and pulled me so close that I was only a hair’s breadth away from his lips before saying, “You mean the world to me, Gracie.”
I melted into him, placing my hands to his chest as I said, “I hope that I continue to mean the world to you. And you don’t ever treat me like I expect you to.”