Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 112249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
But no.
He shrugged and shoved his fists into the pockets of his jacket with his feet planted firmer into the ground. “I’m not staying long.”
Sonny arched a brow. “Should I believe that?”
“Got any reason not to?”
Malachi hoped the man came up with something.
Who knew what might happen then?
A silence stretched on between the two, only broken by the occasional vehicle passing by on the street on their way out of town. Malachi used those few seconds to size up the guy he hadn’t seen in a handful of years.
Time hadn’t changed much.
Sonny’s tall stature, blond hair, and dark eyes spoke to his great-great-grandfather’s European history. His family, immigrants on his mother’s side, had been one of the first to settle in the area. Something the family enjoyed using and attaching to everything they did when it came to the town.
Malachi had never been the type to appreciate that sort of thing. If anything, he thought it made the Masterson family’s need for recognition and acknowledgement, as if it made them special, sort of stupid. What good did the history do? They were far removed from their early family’s farmer’s life.
“Wasn’t sure you would recognize me, honestly,” Malachi said, deciding he would be the one to break the silence and point out the elephant in the room. Might as well save some time and get this shitshow over with. “It’s been a while.”
Sonny nodded, but he waved off the comment. “Or maybe I’d heard you were in town, huh?”
Had he?
Damn.
“News travels fast,” Malachi noted.
Sonny released a slow breath, replying, “All I know is what I’m told. Are you still staying at Nader’s place?”
“Did he give you a heads up?”
“Hitchen isn’t a friend,” Sonny returned on the topic of Nader.
And?
That’s not what Malachi asked.
“Looking out, are you?”
Malachi didn’t believe Sonny was keeping tabs on him, but the possibility was still there, and he wanted to clear it up before the two went any further. Especially if it meant that Malachi didn’t really have the leg up on Sonny like he’d previously thought before showing up today.
“Who told you I was back in town?” Malachi asked.
Point black.
He was not fucking around, now.
Sonny remained unmoved, but he had never been the type to back down from a challenge. A lot like every other man that grew up in this godforsaken shithole. As boys there hadn’t been much else to do except play hockey in the winter and fight all the times in between. Something they could also do on the ice. Except they weren’t boys anymore, and nobody in that driveway had on helmets or gloves.
Every punch would hurt.
On the other hand ...
It might be worth it.
“Doesn’t Nader’s mom look after his place when he’s working down in Juniper through the week?” Sonny asked.
“She didn’t see me—”
Sonny lifted his silk-covered shoulders, speaking over Malachi before he could properly shut the idea of his friend’s mother down. “All I’m saying is yesterday, she might have told Alora at church that she thought she saw you leaving Nader’s. What, did you roll into town over the weekend?”
Yesterday?
The weekend?
He almost laughed.
Shit.
Malachi was still a step ahead, it seemed. He’d been in town almost an entire week and a half before word got out, so that wasn’t too bad.
“Am I not allowed to come home?” Malachi asked, smart enough to know he shouldn’t let Sonny in on the fact he’d been in town for longer than everyone else assumed. At least that way, he controlled the narrative.
In their valley, that was priceless.
“Considering the last time we talked, you were two weeks off being shipped to juvie—”
“I never went to juvie,” Malachi said before anything else was. He also didn’t plan to offer any further information on the topic. His history wasn’t the most important thing that needed attention between the two men.
“My point is, yeah, it’s been a while. Think about how I must feel to hear you’re in town one day, and you show up the next.” Sonny even gestured broadly at Malachi, his bike, and the rest of the driveway scene in front of him. “Like this, no less. What should I think?”
Hopefully, nothing good.
He wasn’t here to make friends.
“Right,” Malachi returned, even managing a smile for Sonny. Not that it appeared true or kind. He also didn’t intend for it to. “So, imagine my shock when I log onto Instagram two weeks ago for the first time in six months to find out my sister was getting married—”
“Was it really a shock?”
“To you,” Malachi finished without missing a beat.
Didn’t even blink.
“Alora would like to see you,” Sonny said like everything else wasn’t a big deal.
Malachi took note of the invitation, but offered nothing else in regard to his little sister, nonetheless. The oldest, and only full blood, of his siblings. The one sister he’d been allowed to know before his refusal to fall in line with his stepfather’s beliefs and rules forced him out of the family entirely.