Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 78696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
I nodded.
I hadn’t had anything to eat in well over two days.
As Wolf parted ways with me, I walked quickly to Lenore’s room, anxious to see her.
However, I froze outside of her room when I saw Remy talking to Lenore.
He had her hand in his, and he was talking to her in low tones.
“He’s a dangerous man, Lennie. He’s always going to bring danger to your home, because that’s what his job is. He’s a Texas Ranger. He’s not going to give up his job, and even if he did do that, he won’t give up his motorcycle club,” Remy said. “They’re a bunch of vigilantes with vendettas. They’ll forever try to right the wrongs of society, because that’s just the type of men they are.”
“I don’t care. I want him to be happy. If I die because of something he’s involved in, it was meant to be. I love him. I won’t let you persuade me otherwise,” Lenore’s soft, melodic voice said.
I closed my eyes.
Was my life appropriate for a woman?
Would me being who I was endanger her?
And if I did endanger her, would she be able to protect herself?
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that she couldn’t.
She didn’t have the skills to protect herself, and even if I did teach her self-defense, she didn’t have the mentality to shoot someone.
Although she was a spunky woman with an amazing attitude on life, she didn’t have what it would take to live with protecting someone by taking their life.
And she might have to do that if she stayed with me.
I’d do everything I could to protect her, but there wasn’t a way for me to protect her for the rest of our lives.
At some point, she’d be alone.
Just like my son had been.
And look where my son had ended up.
Dead.
As these nasty thoughts sifted through my head, I backed up further and further until I was at the end of the hall.
Then even further until I was at the elevators.
And as the doors closed on the floor that Lenore was on, I realized that I’d just made my decision.
Lenore would find someone else.
She’d find someone…someone like Remy…that would be able to protect her.
That would be a good father to her kids.
That could actually have kids with her that would be protected.
I exited the elevator with my heart in my throat.
I got on my bike…and rode.
I didn’t have a destination in mind.
But anywhere would be better than there.
Anywhere would be better that didn’t remind me of her.
***
Three days later
“You should’ve listened to me, Justin,” I said, hunkering down so I could look straight into Justin’s eyes. “You should’ve done what I said, but you didn’t.”
I moved my knife to run along the fucker’s throat.
The tip of the knife dragged along his delicate skin, leaving a faint white line as it did.
It didn’t cut the surface of his skin, but it did let him know I was serious.
“I want you to know,” I said, putting both of my elbows on my knees. “That I will forever be watching you. When you get out of this prison in fifteen years, I’ll be there waiting to take you home. I’ll be with you every step, ensuring that you never live another happy day for the rest of your years.”
Justin squeezed his eyes shut.
“I’m sorry,” he cried. “Thank you for saving my wife.”
I glared at him. “At one point she was my wife, too. She may be a bitch, but nobody deserves what you had a hand in doing to her. No thanks needed.”
I shook my head, dropped the knife into the cup holder of my work car, and got out.
I dragged Justin out, pulling him into the police station by his arm.
Once I was at the desk that would allow me to turn over my suspect, I gave one last word of advice to Justin before I left.
“Make sure you watch your back. Wouldn’t want some overzealous inmate doing anything bad to you.”
With that parting comment, I left, smiling.
The next fifteen years would be absolutely terrible for him, and I promised about four prisoners cigarettes once a week if they ensured it.
Money well spent.
***
One day later
I stared at the man who’d shot my child.
Stared at him so long that his body was strung tight with tension.
“I’m tying up loose ends,” I said finally.
The man was a cocky little asshole, one who’d been hired by Perry to fake a drive by shooting and had given the man what he’d thought was a ‘fake gun.’
The man hadn’t known what he was getting into.
But that didn’t negate the fact that his hand had been the one holding the gun that’d killed my baby boy.
His finger had pulled that trigger.
Whether he’d meant to do it or not, was beside the point.
It was time for him to be a man.
Own up to his mistakes.
“You should’ve told the cops what had happened in the first place instead of running to that piece of shit Perry. He didn’t protect you. And you shouldn’t have been protected in the first place. You should’ve realized that this whole goddamned thing was fucking wrong. That it wasn’t right. If you needed money, you should’ve gone and gotten a job like the rest of the world has to do,” I growled.
Ellis Perry’s best friend, Carter Womack, looked like he’d been through a thousand wars.
And he had.
“Let’s go,” I said, pointing to the police station. “Make sure you tell them what I told you.”
The club had had him locked up at headquarters for days while we extracted every single bit of information from him.
Now that we no longer needed him, it was time he went to where he was forever going to be.
His court appearance was just formality.
He’d be going to prison.
He’d spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Or he’d die.
I’d given him that option—but he’d asked to be put in prison—so he could think about his sins for the rest of his life.
And I was happy to oblige. Not that I believed him when he said he wanted to think about his sins for the rest of his life. The little fucker thought he’d get out, that someone would break him out if they had to. That wasn’t going to be the case in this instance, though.