Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 97462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
“I got your ‘old man’,” his dad grumbled, sitting on his stool and picking up the paper.
“Anything interesting in there?” Bull asked, keeping his tone casual, wondering how long it’d take the paper to get wind of their vigilantism last night.
“Your ad looks great,” Amelia said from the sink.
“That’s Marcy’s doing.” Bull ate a hot biscuit from the platter and was just able to swipe another before Amelia came at him with a spatula.
“I’m almost done, gosh,” she fussed. “And go tell Fox breakfast is ready. He’s been up there on those computers for an hour already.”
Bull wondered what Fox could be working on so hard. He thought the manhunt was over. He poured some coffee in Fox’s mug—Bull paused with the white cup in his hand, staring at the goofy cow on the front with the quote Mooo bitch, get out the hay written in block letters. Fox had taken one look at it and laughed for almost two minutes. From then on, he’d used the same one every morning. Fox has his own mug. Bull let that sink in as he added a splash of cream and a couple of spoons of sugar.
Before last night, Fox had been staying in his home with a specific purpose. Now that he had accomplished that task, Bull wasn’t a hundred percent certain what Fox’s next move would be. Whatever it was, he’d give him the space to sort it all out.
“I’ll go get him,” Bull murmured.
Once he reached the top of the stairs, he heard Fox talking with Free on his speakerphone. It sounded like he was being chewed out for getting rid of his earpiece.
“I said I’d pay for it,” Fox said after an irritated breath.
“You can’t bloody afford it,” Free said, raising his voice. “Now you are stuck using some 1980s wired earpiece when you come back.”
Bull paused at Fox’s door when he went silent.
“You are coming back, right?” Free asked quietly. “Fox… we need you here.”
“I’m not done thinking.”
“I understand, but I’m not sure how much time you have left.”
Bull stared at Fox’s back as he stood in front of the monitors, all of them displaying something Bull didn’t understand. They weren’t showing surveillance of his land; Fox was studying something else.
“I think I found him,” Fox noted. “Rafael P. Ortega. There’s only one within two hundred miles of Senoia… I’m sending it to you.”
“Is this the guy Steele was following?”
Fox sucked his teeth. “Yeah. The same one Newt was bumping uglies with behind the bar… Turns out… it’s the real thing. He said Rafael was on the naturalization list, so he would’ve already passed the qualifiers, which means he likely has no criminal history. I just wanna see if Newt was bullshitting me.”
Bull frowned in confusion as Fox tapped rapidly on the keys. What the hell is he up to? Bull reached around Fox’s slim waist in those black jeans and placed his coffee on the desk in front of him.
“Got it. Give me a few seconds.”
Fox hit mute on his cell phone and leaned into Bull’s chest. He pushed down one side of Fox’s dark gray turtleneck so he could get to his throat. He hadn’t shaved that morning, so his beard was stubbly and scratched his cheek as he nuzzled as far into his scent as he could go.
“Why are you checking up on Rafael?” Bull cupped Fox’s chin.
Fox gave him a pointed look before he turned away.
“Are you going soft on me?” Bull grinned. “I thought you wanted to… what was the phrase you used…. Oh, yeah. You wanted to bury Newt in a shallow grave so you could dig him up and beat the fuck out of him anytime you wanted.”
Fox chewed on his bottom lip and made an unfazed gesture with his hand. “That was yesterday.”
Bull chuckled just as Free’s nice voice came out of the speaker again.
“I found him, Fox.”
Fox unmuted his handset, keeping one arm around Bull as he spoke to his coworker. “What you find?”
“That’s a big ten-four on the naturalization list. Rafael and his family—his mother and ten-year-old brother and sister—have been on the list for twenty-two months now. Hell.”
Fox was quiet for a long moment until Free finally asked, “What do you want me to do with this?”
“What can you do?” Fox asked.
Free’s answer was fast. “Whatever you need.”
Fox cut his sharp eyes to Bull, the radiant silver in them softening the more he held on to him. Before that moment, Bull didn’t think it was possible to fall for this man any harder than he already had, until he mumbled the next three words.
“Push ’em through.”
“Mmmm,” Fox moaned into their kiss.
The second Free hung up, Bull dove for his mouth, mashing their tongues together greedily. As if Bull hadn’t been more than satisfied less than eight hours ago that he’d fallen into a dead sleep while still on top of him. Regardless, Fox didn’t stop him, only opened wider. Bull turned them away from the desk and walked him backwards until the bend of Fox’s knees met his bed. The one he hadn’t slept in for weeks.