Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 133213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 666(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 666(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
TJ looked up from where he was sitting in the living room, looking at his phone. He gave them all a thumbs-up. “It’s really restful.”
Cooper walked back in, frowning. “Now we’ve got a fight club scheduled. Thanks a lot, Uncle Adam. Chocolate croissants did not work. I mean she totally took them but then kicked me out because I’ve got balls. At least that’s how she explained the problem. I was going to eat one of those. Dude, is Tristan dead?”
Jake readjusted his son. “Nah. Just sleeping until I can get him back home.”
Aidan was so happy his father had a bad back. “I know it might not be my place, but he was my partner for a long time, and I should tell you he’s going to see this as an attack on his bodily autonomy. And his pride. Also, can we talk about how dangerous it can be to shoot up our loved ones with drugs when we have no idea how they’re going to react?”
“Fuck his pride,” Carys said, obviously forgetting her whole Hippocratic Oath thing. “You go, Uncles. And I think fight club sounds perfect. I haven’t hit anything in a long time.” Her fists clenched. “Yeah, some sparring might be exactly what I need.”
He didn’t like the sound of that. Especially since he knew who she would be sparring with. “Maybe you should start slow, baby.”
Cooper shook his head. “Nope. We don’t fuck with female fight club unless we want to get taken down by female fight club. You need to understand if you get involved you might be perfectly fine around Kala. Because they will take your balls.”
Adam gave them all a salute. “I wish you well. We’ll have Tristan back this afternoon. Dais, you want to join us? We’ve got eggs Benedict.”
“Thanks, but I want to watch fight club,” Daisy admitted. “It’s always super fun.”
The Dean-Miles clan strode off with their son/victim… He wasn’t sure what he thought of Tris’s kidnapping. The best friend part of him knew it could go poorly. The other best friend part of him said fuck it, Tris deserved it.
Carys downed her coffee/whiskey in one go and had a look in her eyes she got when she was going to do something dumb. Usually because she was too stressed to be reasonable. Like the time she gave a debate speech in front of the whole school about how coaches shouldn’t teach history because they neither understood it nor understood that young women didn’t want to be sexualized in class.
Though it had gotten the asshole fired.
The thing was when his baby had enough, she kind of exploded, and he might be dealing with two and a half years’ worth of suppressed rage.
Thank god he was well versed in trauma. He thought he might face a lot of it today.
“I’m going to take a shower. Tell Kala I’m ready whenever she is.”
“Oh, not a good idea.” Kenzie had been watching the whole scene from her place at the bar, sipping her coffee while the show played out. “Maybe you should start with like Lou. Or Dais. She’s been taking self-defense.”
“I just got my nails done,” his sister said. “I’m strictly audience today. The only pounding I intend to take is from Nate tonight. I’m excited about the play party. I thought we were going to skip the whole weekend because of the wedding thing.”
“I did not need to hear that, Dais.” There was a lot of info he didn’t need to know floating around today.
“No, I can handle Kala,” Carys said, stretching one arm over her chest and then the other. “Do we have any protein bars? I’ll eat it after I shower. I can handle this. I can.”
She walked off.
Aidan started after her.
Cooper put a hand on his shoulder. “She needs some time. This is woman’s work, man. We should make breakfast and pray they don’t take it out on us.”
“I could eat,” TJ said.
Aidan sighed. It was going to be a long day.
* * * *
Tristan came awake in a crazy, groggy state, the world hazy around him.
What was wrong with his arms? He couldn’t move them. His whole body felt…tight.
What the hell had happened? Had he been kidnapped? Was this it? Someone had finally found him, and he would be tortured until he had to admit he didn’t know who the bombmaker was and they killed him because he was fucking useless. He hadn’t been able to solve the problem, and it cost him everything.
“He’s waking up,” a familiar voice said. “You were right. I thought he would be out longer.”
“Yeah, I know Big Tag. Aidan thinks Tris has never taken a tranq dart before. Big Tag thinks shooting his employees with tranqs is training,” another voice said. Just as familiar.
Was he dreaming? He groaned as he felt a feminine hand on his face. Somehow he knew it was feminine. But not Carys. Carys might never fucking touch him again.