Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 135696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
He was there. She didn’t hide she was there.
But they had to have a talk about it, because she had a life to get back to it was clear she enjoyed, and a lot of people she’d leave behind. But he had a life in Misted Pines he couldn’t leave because he had a son.
She needed to know where he was at, what he wanted for their future, that being them looking at getting serious about working on having one together, and she had to think on that, because if she was in, she was the one who’d be making the big sacrifices.
He didn’t get into it with her that day.
Instead, he’d walked over in the morning, and they’d spent another hour looking for evidence of trespassers before he took her back to the cabin in order to fuck her.
They’d then gone to his workshop where she’d hung with him while he worked, scribbling in her journal, and she’d walked home to meet Hutch for more training about an hour before Riggs had to go get his son from school.
Which brought him to now.
The only thing of note beyond that was, he’d taken the time to draw out the quadrants before he’d sent them to Cade, Jess, and Jace. The latter two didn’t fuck around and texted they were heading out within half an hour of getting his text. And Rus had also gotten in touch, saying he heard about the search, and he wanted to help out, so Riggs needed to send him details of his patch, which he did, along with his gratitude for helping out.
Riggs was pissed he had to spend time doing that shit.
But if their theory was correct, and it wasn’t just asshole kids over the years getting bright ideas, instead, it was someone looking for something, and maybe that someone was a person who killed two and possibly three people already, he had his son and his woman on that land.
He needed to know what he was dealing with.
He heard the car pull up before Nadia did, but it didn’t take much longer for her eyes to go to the front door, then come to him.
He shook his head, moved from where he was cutting potatoes into wedges to the sink to rinse his hands, and he took the kitchen towel with him as he dried them and walked to the front door.
Harry’s cruiser was parked out front and Harry himself was headed up the walk.
Riggs pushed out the storm door and called, “Hey, brother.”
“Hey, Doc. I’m not interrupting dinner, am I?”
“Nope. We’re in the middle of making it.”
“You got a few minutes to take a break for a quick brief?”
“Sure. But wanna stay longer and have dinner with us?” Riggs offered. “We got plenty.”
Harry looked to the house and back at Riggs. “What are you having?”
“Homemade, pickle-brined fried chicken sandwiches, slaw and fried potato wedges.”
No hesitation from Harry before, “I wanna stay.”
Riggs grinned, jerked his head to the door and went in, Harry following him.
“Hi, Harry,” Nadia called from where she was mixing slaw.
“Hey, Nadia,” Harry replied.
“He’s staying for dinner,” Riggs told her.
“Excellent,” she said. Then to Harry, she asked, “Off duty? Want a beer?”
“I’d murder a beer,” Harry told her.
Her head twitched, she gave him a look, then she went to the fridge.
After she did, Riggs gave his friend his own look and kept doing it.
“Everything cool?” he asked.
“Actually, yeah, but on the other hand, it never really is,” Harry answered.
No truer words spoken.
“Grab a stool,” he bid. “Ledger’s outside somewhere with Gia, so beware. He cottons on you’re here, you could have a nine-year-old kid and ninety-pound dog that could rip off your arm all over you at any time.”
The skin around his friend’s eyes wrinkled, and he took a stool.
Nadia put an open bottle of beer in front of him.
Riggs tossed the towel aside and resumed cutting potatoes.
Harry took in Nadia wearing her apron, the beer she gave him, the potatoes, Riggs, and opened his mouth.
Riggs got there before him. “Fuck off.”
He felt Nadia look at him, but Harry just hid his smile behind a drag off his beer.
“So what’s up?” Riggs asked.
“Pertinent to you,” Harry began, “Evan Pugh’s parents want to know if you and Nadia are good with him coming out here accompanied by them so he can apologize formally for being an asshat.”
Pugh was one of the boys who’d fucked with Nadia, the shorter one she landed her brand of ice on.
Riggs looked to Nadia.
She shrugged.
He turned again to Harry. “Not necessary, but if his parents think it is, we can work that out.”
“Great. I’ll tell them. Next up, Casey Grimes is dedicated to the task of remaining a douchebag. He’s pissed I got his son in my cells and I’m not letting him go, and he’s ticked about the fine levied. He told me to tell you that if you didn’t drop charges against his kid, he’s going to sue you in civil court for assault.”