Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 71312 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71312 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
“You don’t know the half of it.”
“Maybe I don’t. Maybe our experiences are completely different. I’m willing to level with you. Will you level with me?”
“About prison? Sure. But what I did to get in there?” Falcon’s expression goes dark. “Never in a million years.”
Leif rubs his forehead. “All right. I can handle that. But if it comes back to bite you in the ass, and you ask for my help? You’re going to have to level with me, or I can’t help you.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
“Can’t, Falcon. That’s another thing I learned in the Navy. Without all relevant information, you don’t stand a fucking chance.”
“Yeah? We’ll cross that bridge if we come to it. What we’re dealing with now has nothing to do with me.”
I nod. “It has to do with me and my family. Which is why I think I can help.”
“And I’m telling you no,” Falcon says in a demanding tone.
“You’ve got to stop that, Fal,” Leif says. “I’m married to a woman who’s just as strong as I am in a completely different way. If I needed her help, she’d be there. And she’d use everything at her disposal. It seems you’ve got a good woman here—”
“Wait, wait, wait.” I hold up my hand. “I’m not his woman.”
“Oh?”
“She’s right,” Falcon says. “We don’t have any understanding between us. Only the day. The moment.”
And a pseudo-marriage proposal that he seems to have forgotten.
“Fine. Have it your way.” Leif looks at Falcon, and then at me.
I haven’t known Falcon long, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t feeling something amazing. I’m probably falling in love with him—with my ex-parolee—who’s in trouble now because of me.
If I had any sense in my head I’d let him go.
I’d go home to Austin, fix this, and never set foot in Summer Creek, Texas again.
And if that’s what I must do to help Falcon? I will.
19
FALCON
“You’re clear,” Leif says.
“You’re fucking sure?”
“Yeah, I’m fucking sure. I just spent the last hour and a half going over every inch of this place with a fine-tooth comb. There isn’t any surveillance equipment here. Not anywhere. No microphones, no cameras, no bugs in your landline. You’re good, Falcon. Trust me. I’m trained to do this. I’ve done it for the Wolfe family the last couple of years.”
“All right. Thanks, man.”
Leif’s wife, Kelly—a gorgeous woman with auburn hair and blue eyes—is having a drink with Savannah before dinner in the family room area.
It’s a gorgeous Texas day, but we can’t go outside. Crime scene.
We join the ladies in the family room where they’re sitting together on my leather couch, Sydney at Savannah’s feet and Sammy cuddling in Kelly’s lap.
“We’re good,” I say to Savannah.
Savannah’s rigid composure visibly softens. “Good. That’s a relief.”
“So how did you two meet?” I ask.
“She just got done telling me the story,” Savannah says. “It’s intense.”
“Yeah,” Kelly says. “Not sure I’m up for repeating it, but Leif, you can tell him.”
“Kelly here…” Leif pauses and frowns. “Well, you were in prison, but you know the billionaire Derek Wolfe who was murdered last year?”
“Yeah. You hear things on the inside.” I take a sip of my bourbon—to hell with parole rules. “But some of the things about Wolfe can’t possibly be true.”
“Oh… they’re true,” Kelly says.
“Fuck,” I say.
“No need to mince words,” Kelly says. “I’m one of the women from the island.”
Savannah says nothing. Who can blame her? We all heard the stories of what happened to those women on that island.
“You can ask whatever questions you want,” Kelly says. “I’m an open book at this point.”
“We won’t put you through that,” Savannah says, “but we’re happy that you’re here now.”
Kelly smiles. “I owe Leif everything.”
“I wasn’t there when you really needed me,” Leif says.
“But you were,” Kelly says. “If you could’ve rescued me from that horrific place, that would’ve been great. But I have to look at things as a whole, you know? It all led me to you.”
A look passes between Leif and Kelly.
Yeah, they’ve been through some shit too.
All this time, I’ve had so much resentment toward Leif. He didn’t visit me in prison. Didn’t even write me.
But he was over in Afghanistan, serving our country. Watching his friends go down. And Kelly… Let’s just say I was able to save a lot of my fellow prisoners from what happened to her.
“So…” I say. “Right now, Savannah’s the issue. You’ve heard the story of what went down here at my house. Why we can’t go into the backyard.” I scratch reach down and scratch Sydney behind her soft ears. “Why we have to take these two mutts here out on leashes in the front yard to do their business.”
“Crime scene,” Leif says.
“Yeah. I was more worried about the guy Savannah stabbed. I didn’t think he had a chance in hell of making it. You got him right in the carotid, sweetheart.”