Total pages in book: 143
Estimated words: 132834 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 664(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132834 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 664(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
A glance at the screen of Griffen’s SUV told me we only had twenty minutes left of the drive. Without meaning to say anything, I found myself admitting, “I don’t know what to say to him.”
The second the words were out, I worried he’d be pissed that he’d wasted a day driving out here when I didn’t even know what I wanted to say to Ford.
“You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to,” he said after a long moment. “But if you have questions, you have a right to the answers. And I have some questions of my own.” His voice was a growl by the end. I wondered what it would take for his formidable temper to boil over. I wouldn’t mind seeing it—as long as I wasn’t on the other end.
“What are you going to ask him?” I wanted to know Griffen’s take on this whole fucked up mess.
“I want to hear his explanation,” he said. “We got Cole’s story. I want to see how it lines up with whatever Ford has to say for himself.” His tone seemed to say that Griffen wasn’t expecting Ford’s explanation to be any good. I liked that we were on the same page. I couldn’t imagine Ford was going to say anything that would make this any better.
“You think Cole lied?” I asked.
Griffen shook his head. “I don’t know, but the fact that he worked closely with Dad and Ford for years is a disqualifying connection in my book.”
“So you don’t trust Harvey or Edgar either?” That had to be awkward, considering he was married to Edgar’s niece and Hope seemed to love her uncle.
“Harvey is okay. I’m pretty are there were times when Harvey was the one who tried to talk sense into Dad. I know he fought him over the will. And Edgar—” Griffen shot me a grim smile. “Edgar is tricky.”
“Tricky how?” I asked, intrigued by his description. I’d met Edgar a handful of times, but nothing about him had jumped out as interesting.
Griffen shook his head again. “Tricky in ways I’m not free to disclose for another four years and five months. I don’t trust him as far as I can throw him, but he loves Hope, and she loves him back, so I’m stuck with him.”
I wanted to ask Griffen what he meant about Edgar being tricky, but based on his comment about four years and five months, I could guess that it had to do with the will, which meant I had zero chance of prying it out of him.
We arrived at the prison, and both of us stopped talking. I knew Griffen had been there before, so I let him take the lead.
Getting into the prison was a weird experience, starting with watching Griffen morph from my slightly forbidding oldest brother into a man who exuded authority. The warden came to greet us, a balding, rotund man with a red face and a thick accent. He fawned over Griffen, who only looked annoyed by the attention.
With a sharp nod and a mention of the time, Griffen got the warden moving, hustling us through the pat down and down one endless concrete corridor and then another. I’d been thrown in local jails a time or two in my reckless twenties, but I’d never been in anything like a state prison, and the contrast made me extremely grateful I’d never fucked up badly enough to end up here.
We ended up in a big room with wide rectangular tables bolted to the floor. Except for us and a guard stationed in the corner, the room was empty. The warden left us after a few more fawning comments to Griffen.
We sat side by side at one of the tables, waiting. Griffen tilted his head in my direction. “I’ve been out of the bubble too long,” he said, too quietly for the guard to hear. “I forgot what it was like to be a Sawyer in the Carolinas.”
“And now you’re the Sawyer,” I added. “I bet people trip over themselves to kiss your ass.”
Griffen only grunted at that, and I knew I was right.
The room was too empty, the buzz of the fluorescent lights abrasive. I shifted in my seat, wondering what I was doing here. What did I want Ford to say? Did I want denials? Would I believe them? Was there anything he could say that I’d believe?
I braced my ankle on my knee, restlessly jiggling my foot before dropping my foot to the floor again.
“Finn,” Griffen said, his eyes sliding to me, a shadow of amusement in their depths. His hand came down on my knee, stilling the leg I realized I was bouncing up and down. “It’s going to be okay.” He raised an eyebrow, and I nodded, swallowing hard, believing him even as I wasn’t sure what he meant.