Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 122097 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122097 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
I leave shaking my head, but smiling too.
It’s… maybe… good to be back.
Four hours later I pull in to the parking lot of Motel Pool and there she is. Lowyn McBride, her ass sticking out of the back seat of her truck as she gathers shit up. I don’t park next to her, I park down the lot a little so I can watch her for a moment. And just as I think that, my phone rings.
Unknown number. And just as I see that, she backs out of the backseat with a phone to her ear.
No.
I accept the call. “How did you get this number?”
“What?” She sounds scared. “Sorry, I—”
“I’m kiddin’, Lowyn. I know it’s you.”
“How’d you know? Did Amon call and warn you or something?”
“No, should he have?”
“No. But that’s who I got your number from.”
It’s kinda fun to simultaneously watch her kick her hip to the side and toss her hair as she says these words to me. She’s flirting. Over the phone. I’m dead.
“Anyway. Don’t you wanna know why I called?”
“You miss me?”
On the phone, she chuckles. But in real life, across the parking lot, she puts her hand over her mouth and bends over—my effing God, Lowyn. She’s showing that ass off right and left. But the reason she bent over was to hide her expression, which I catch just a bit of when she almost turns around. She puts the phone against her chest, gulps a breath, then brings it back up to her mouth. “This is business.”
“Yeah? What kind of business?” It takes every bit of willpower I have not to laugh at her.
“OK. But you’re gonna—” She turns as she’s saying this, pauses mid-sentence, and squints her eyes at me. “Is that your Jeep?”
I laugh. “That is my Jeep.”
“You’re here?”
“Surprise.”
“Oh, my God.” She hangs up the phone and comes stalking towards me, mouth going a mile a minute, cursing me out, I’m sure. But I can’t hear a single thing she’s saying.
God damn, she is so cute.
How did I ever walk away from her?
When she gets to me, I buzz the window down.
“What are you doing here in my motel parkin’ lot?”
“I have come to invite you over to my new culty compound”—I pause to appreciate her giggle—“so you can pick your treasure out of my fuckin’ junk.”
“Oh… that was dirty, Collin Creed.”
“Dirty how?” I can’t stop the laugh.
“‘Pick your treasure out of my fuckin’ junk?’ How is that not sexual innuendo?”
I guffaw. “Woman, what is your business with me?”
“Well.” She blows up some air, which make her bangs poof up. “You’re gonna think I’m crazy.” I want to say a million things back to that, but she doesn’t give me time. “You’re running some kind of security operation, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, does your operation take on any… questionably legal operations?”
“Have you been spying on me?”
She gets the joke, because she laughs, and I love this. “Seriously, Collin. I’m being serious.”
“What kind of questionable operations?”
“How do you feel about canine kidnappings?”
“I… have… zero feelings about those. And they are not on the menu.”
“But if, by chance, some rich, ex-country-singer star—sorta—wants her dog kidnapped from her filthy, no-good ex-husband, would said security operation be able to, perhaps, make that happen?” Lowyn ends this sentence with a lilt in her voice, like she’s asking me for jelly beans.
“Lowyn.”
“Collin.” She smiles and rests her chin on the part of the door where the window glass disappears.
“If you want me to kidnap a fuckin’ dog, then… I will tell Amon to do that.”
She giggles. “Amon, huh?”
“He’s gonna love this job.”
“So I can tell her yes?”
“Tell her maybe. We gotta get details.”
“Should I be wary of the fact that you agreed to this so quickly?”
“Oh, yeah. You should.”
“That’s what I thought.” She’s serious now. The way Rosie got all serious back at the shop at the end there.
I let out a long breath. “I drove a long way. I would like to have dinner with you. Would you like to have dinner with me?”
She smiles again and nods. “Just let me lock up my trailer and I’ll be right back.”
I watch her ass the whole way across the parking lot. The other night I was thinking there was no way we’d get back together. I didn’t even let myself daydream about it. Because a dozen years are a long time and Lowyn McBride is a fuckin’ treasure. I thought for sure she’d be married. Have kids. A nice house. She does have a nice house, but I mean a bigger house. With all the things she deserves.
But she’s not married, she’s a business owner, and as far as I can tell, she’s not gonna hold my exit from her life against me now.
More importantly, she knows I’m a murderer, and now she knows I’m a kidnapper too.
Well, an accomplice, at the very least.