Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 74379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
She winced. “I…yes. I sold that one.”
“Really?”
She nodded. “Well…kind of.”
“What does kind of mean?”
“It kind of means that I rented it out to a friend that I met while I was there, and she’s taking care of it for me until I can figure out what to do with it.” She paused. “Your brother’s club president…Big Papa?”
I nodded.
“He’s going to help my friend take care of it, too. She’s gonna need the help.”
I could imagine. The house the Shaws had while they were there was just as massive as the one here.
“What else?”
I could sense that she was trying to decide whether to say anything or not.
Almost as if she were bashful or something.
Then she went and blushed a million shades of red, and I realized that she was, in fact, hiding something.
I grinned. “Come on, tell me.”
She shrugged. “So, my friend.” She paused. “God, this is embarrassing, but my friend has a crush on Steel Cross.”
“Who’s Steel Cross?” I was confused.
“Big Papa is Steel Cross. But, Winnie only knows him as Steel Cross.”
My brows lifted. “What kind of name is Steel Cross?” I laughed. “That fits him well, I would say.”
Steel Cross, otherwise known as Big Papa, the president of my brother’s motorcycle club, The Dixie Wardens—Alabama Chapter.
He was a big, hardened cop to boot.
He could rival any boot camp instructor I’d ever met. He had an adult son, and honestly, didn’t look anywhere near fifty—which I knew he was pushing.
His son was thirty-two, and they looked more like brothers than they did father and son.
“How old is this Winnie?” I asked, opening the door to the Taco Shop.
Everything inside quieted as we entered, but I chose to ignore everyone and instead placed my hand on Krisney’s back to urge her further inside.
“She’s young…thirtyish.”
“That’s not young,” I groaned. “I’m thirty-two. That’s the same age as me.”
“Yeah, but she’s almost twenty years younger than Big Papa.”
Well, when she put it like that…
“And you think they’re going to get together?”
She shrugged, but for the first time in a while, I saw a smile on her face that wasn’t false. “I think that she has a good chance…plus she has a little boy and a teenaged girl that just might tip the scales in her favor.”
And, as I watched her face and listened to her talk about her friend over lunch, I realized that staying away from the woman was going to be impossible.
It was getting harder to do with every passing minute.
***
Three hours later, despite promising myself that I wasn't going to do anything or go see her, I drove to her place.
I didn't stop at her driveway like I'd intended to.
No, me being the dumbass glutton for punishment that I was, I pulled into her driveway and got out.
My eyes automatically took in her parents’ place.
It was always so grand that I didn't want to step off the path in fear I'd hurt the grass.
But now, there were weeds in her mother’s precious garden. The grass was overly long. There were newspapers in the driveway.
Her mother would've literally died.
I smiled as I continued up the front walk. Time to see what else I could fuck her on that her mother loved.
Chapter 12
No one is more full of shit than a parent who just uttered the word ‘maybe.’
-Fact of Life
Krisney
I was an emotional mess.
Reed had left over an hour ago, but nothing had been settled. Nothing had been decided. Hell, the subject of our future hadn’t even come up. We were literally at the exact same point that we were before any of this started, except that I was now pregnant with twins.
Sure, we were having regular sex.
We’d been seeing each other a lot, but most of that time was spent with him inside me, not talking in the least.
The one and only time I’d had the courage to ask him what was going on with us, he’d looked so conflicted that I didn’t bring it up again.
But his words that day had felt like they were torn straight from his heart.
"I can't do that to them,” he'd whispered all those years ago. "To her."
And he had been right. No matter what, I knew that seeing me would dredge up old memories for his family. They may say that it didn’t, but they'd be lying.
I was a constant reminder of what they lost. And even worse, I was all that was left of the person who had caused their family so much grief. I may not have personally had anything to do with what my brother did to Reed’s sister, but I was the only one left they could blame, and I was sure that they did.
It was my brother’s horrific actions that took something precious from the Hail family. Reed, Dante, Travis, Finley, all of them, including his parents. Jay’s sins were mine as his sister, even though I may not have been the one sneaking into Amy’s room at night.