Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 133849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 669(@200wpm)___ 535(@250wpm)___ 446(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 669(@200wpm)___ 535(@250wpm)___ 446(@300wpm)
Though when he’d left her, those eyes had been closed, and there had been a peaceful look on her face as Grim petted her.
“Well, I’ll be happy to delay the situation for a couple of weeks,” Al agreed. “Honestly, I don’t feel right fixing the alternator when I know damn well it’s going to fall apart again. The whole car is held together with duct tape and baling wire. It would be a miracle if she made it to Austin in one piece.”
“Hey, Dad, game’s back on,” Greg said from the upstairs window. “Hey, Josh. How’s it going? Grim doing okay? I heard there’s an outbreak. Kind of expected you to be knee deep in cows beside him.”
An outbreak? “We had a couple of bred heifers get some tainted feed. We’re working with the feed store to figure out what’s going on. Where did you hear that?”
Greg leaned over the balcony railing. “Uh, I might have heard something about it from his brothers.”
They weren’t Grim’s brothers. Josh was. Josh and his parents and Livie were his family. “What exactly did they say? And which ones are we talking about?”
“Oh, they were doing the thing where they scream at people going into the park or walking down Main Street.” Greg seemed to wave it off. “It was John and Peter. You know how they are. They wave the Bible around and pretend like they’re the dress code enforcers. I think the ladies look perfectly nice in their leggings. They’re taking an exercise class so I don’t see the problem. But those boys take exception. I don’t think they read the part about plucking thine own eyes out.”
“I could do it for them if they have trouble,” Josh promised.
“The women ignore them. But today they were talking about evilness killing the town, and how all the cows are going to die because we put up with wickedness,” Greg explained. “I didn’t think much of it until I heard from one of the hands what went on this morning. Sorry if he wasn’t supposed to talk.”
That wasn’t the problem. “Nah, it’s fine. Grim’s handling it. They’re being assholes or it’s a coincidence. I don’t see how they could know, but it’s not like it matters. You let me know if they keep talking about it. Al, thanks for helping me out.”
He shook Al’s hand before the older man disappeared back into the shop. Greg gave him a wave as he returned to watching the game. Josh glanced over at the car and then his watch. He couldn’t be gone too long. He pulled his cell phone out and dialed a familiar number as he approached the piece of crap Nicole called a car.
And apparently home every now and then.
The thought made his gut turn. Anything could happen to her out there with nothing but the windows and easily broken locks keeping her from the world. He’d thought the motel was the worst place for her, but sleeping in her car on the streets was definitely worse.
“Hey, Josh. What’s going on. Haven’t heard from you in a while,” a feminine voice said.
Harlow Dawson. She was one of the kids he’d grown up with, the ones who formed his family. Harlow, her sister, Greer, and their parents lived in Dallas, though over the years they’d done a lot of work for the company. Her fathers, Ben and Chase Dawson, were private investigators while her mother, Natalie, was a painter and ran a gallery.
Greer worked with their mom, while Harlow had taken after their dads.
“I’ve been working. You know how it is.” Josh took in the car, holding the key he’d stolen in his palm. Borrowed. He would put it back, but he wanted to take a look first.
“Our parents don’t want to travel for work anymore, so they send us. Yes. I certainly do. Be glad you spend your time in sales meetings. You only had to go to college. I had to go to college and then pass Big Tag’s kill-the-girl training school. It was terrible. I was in it with some people who I think are training to be assassins, but my dads insisted I go if I was going to do anything dangerous.”
Actually, he was happy his training had been in how to handle a ranch and run a business. He’d heard the man they called Big Tag was kind of intimidating, and that was coming from kids who’d grown up around Julian Lodge. Josh had met Mr. Taggart a number of times. He’d made the mistake of hitting on his daughter once.
Oddly, the man hadn’t threatened to kill him. He’d gone over a long list of things Kenzie Taggart had mastered—including her black belt in tae kwon do. And then he’d given him a lengthy document he called a release of all liability.