Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 67490 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67490 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
“They might know.” I sighed. “I guess it’s just nice deluding myself.”
She cracked open a liter bottle of Dr. Pepper, then said, “What now?”
I bit my lip. “Now’s the time where I beg you to stay.”
Her brows lifted. “What do you mean?”
“I’m asking you to stay. Here. With me. In Dallas,” I said. “Stay with me. Let’s live our lives here. Let’s…”
“I need to work, Keene.” She rolled her eyes.
“I know you need to work.” I glanced over at her to see her tapping her lip with one finger. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t work here. You could work with a hospital here,” I offered.
She rolled her eyes.
Then I went in for the kill shot.
“If you stay, then you can come to work with us.”
• • •
ANDE
I blinked at him.
“You wouldn’t mind me being there with you on dangerous missions?” I asked.
“I’d mind you being there without protection, sure,” he said. “But you’d never be without protection. You’d always have someone there to watch your back.”
The thought sounded intriguing.
It’d give me that sense of purpose I always got when it came to going to places that really needed me.
“I already applied for a position here,” I said. “With a friend.”
“That would actually work out very well. Would your friend work with us?” His eyes slid over to where my phone was. He’d seen the text from Shayne, obviously. “You think you can get her to work with us, too? Having our own pilot while we’re over there might very well be the difference between life and death.”
“How often do you think you’d need me?” I asked. “Can I still do this job?”
‘This job’ being the one I’d just taken with Angel Flight.
The owner of the company, Silas Mackenzie, was a man I’d met a few years ago while doing a few months’ travel contract in Mooresville, Alabama. Silas had been great to work with. And he’d promised me a job if I’d ever decided to settle down locally.
Hence me calling him up last week and asking for a job.
He’d given me one on the spot but told me that it would only be PRN—as needed—until we could find me a more permanent spot in the lineup.
I’d greedily accepted, knowing without a doubt that I wouldn’t be leaving Dallas ever again if I could help it, and he’d been ecstatic.
Apparently good help was hard to find nowadays, and he let me know that he was happy to finally have someone he could rely on.
But if I was helping out Winston and the rest of Keene’s team…
“Would he work with you?” he asked.
I thought about it.
I thought about the motorcycle club that I knew Silas was a part of—The Dixie Wardens MC. I thought about how he’d told me stories of all the woman in his club, how much trouble they’d all had when it came to crazy people.
And I realized that if I just told him everything we were doing, he’d have no problem in the world with offering me any time off I needed.
Even if that would make me a bit unreliable.
Plus, it wouldn’t just be me I was taking away, but Shayne, too.
“Let me call him really quick,” I said.
I did, and he answered in a few short rings.
“Hey, darlin’. I was just thinking about you. Do you think you can come down to the station really quick? I have some paperwork for you, as well as a few questions for you. But I’ll only be in town for another hour or so,” he answered.
When I looked over at Keene in question, he nodded his head, as if he agreed.
“Where do you need to go?” he asked. “We’re like two hours early. I can turn around.”
So, we did, heading back toward Dallas, but east toward the Plano side. Which worked out because it wasn’t too much farther from where the graduation was being held.
“Let me get Winston on the phone. He’s going to want to hear what’s going on, since I’m inviting people into his world,” Keene murmured.
After a short discussion, Winston said he was in the area—though likely he was heading to the graduation just like we were—and that he’d be there soon.
When we arrived, it was to see the parking lot filled with bikes.
Eight of them.
When Keene pulled up beside the bikes, he got out, then rounded the truck to come open my door.
Just as I stepped out, my body brushing against Keene’s, Silas appeared in the bay of the department building. Winston’s car pulled up a couple of moments later.
I turned from watching him pull in to see the man who was overtaking the large bay area.
Silas Mackenzie was a big dude.
Solid and still very muscular even though he was an older man.
His eyes, though. They were still just as sharp as they had been years ago when I’d first met him.