Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 139088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 695(@200wpm)___ 556(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 695(@200wpm)___ 556(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
A slow smile spread across his face. “Sixty-nine?”
“I could do that.”
“You’re gonna have to lose the hat.”
I took it off and tossed it to the couch.
He started laughing.
Through it, he said, “I’ll shut down for the night. You get naked.”
I could do that too.
So that was exactly what I did.
TWENTY-FOUR
ARMY OF BROTHERS
The next morning, after sex, doggie break (my turn), coffee and date and peanut butter smoothies, Knox told me Cap was taking him into the office that morning.
We then made plans for me to pick him up for his doctor’s appointment, and if he got the all-clear, we’d go by his place so he could get his truck.
Even if Cap was his ride, he still walked me down to my car.
My run-in with his mother was annoying, but for me, it wasn’t that big of a deal.
He still was not taking any chances.
So many reasons to love my guy.
Tex’s special, as announced by the window, was s’more, and the illustration for the first time didn’t look that bad. I wasn’t sure he needed to add the fire when this s’more would come in coffee form, but it worked.
I turned in, parked, went in, stowed my bag, tied on my apron, headed out, and stopped dead when I saw Tex not making coffee in the cubby.
No.
He was sitting at Byron’s table with Byron and Tito.
This had never happened.
As such, this didn’t give me a good feeling because, even though, in very different ways, Tex and Tito were father-esque figures to all of us girls, and Dream worked weekends, so she was one of the girls, I didn’t think this was a them-sitting-him-down-and-asking-his-intentions chat.
I knew it wasn’t when Tex looked over his shoulder at me.
He had a lot of beard.
I could still see his face.
And it was serious.
Raye wasn’t in yet. Willow was probably helping in the cubby. We were barely open so there wasn’t anyone sitting at a table.
Those weren’t the reasons I rushed over to them.
“What?” I asked.
“Sit, Luna, please,” Tito said, giving up his seat for me.
But he stood by the table even after I sat down.
I didn’t know who to look at, but since we were in Byron’s space, I looked at him.
“What?”
“Cynthia Chambers fell off the face of the earth twenty-two years ago,” Byron said.
I wasn’t following.
“I’m sorry?”
“Knox’s mom ceased to exist twenty-two years ago,” Byron essentially repeated.
“That tracks. That’s about when she left them,” I said. “Sorry, you might not know, but she left Knox and his brothers and sister when he was eleven.”
“And she fell off the face of the earth,” Byron drove home.
“I don’t know why you keep telling me that,” I said.
Tito slid in next to Byron. “Luna, love, a woman can leave her husband, but she’ll still leave a footprint.”
It was hitting me.
“Nothing?” I asked Byron.
He shook his head. “No renewed driver’s license. No bank accounts. No credit cards. No taxes filed. No property holdings. No license plate registrations. No divorce proceedings. Not even any change of name petitions. Nothing.”
“I saw her. She got into a BMW. She was dressed really nice,” I told them.
No one said anything.
“So what does this mean?” I asked.
“One, that wasn’t Knox’s mom who you saw, or two, she’s so far off the grid, the grid forgot she existed,” Byron said.
Could some crazy lady be running around pretending to be Knox’s mom?
“She met with him,” I mumbled. “In Denver.”
And he would know her.
But he didn’t see the woman I saw.
“This is her driver’s license picture from back then,” Byron said, and turned his laptop to me.
It was her.
And I was right, she’d aged well. She certainly hadn’t struggled through life after she left her kids behind. A woman didn’t keep skin like hers unless she ate well, lived well and had regular spa visits.
“That’s her,” I confirmed.
The men exchanged looks.
I started to feel cold.
“Byron’s taking this to the men,” Tex grunted. “You got any other questions before he goes?”
“Wouldn’t they have vetted Knox pretty thoroughly when he started with them?” I asked.
“Mother out of the picture, not in his life, not for a long time, yeah. Probably. But when they didn’t find much, because of that and because Knox didn’t care to find her himself, they probably didn’t look any deeper,” Tex said. “Especially why she left.”
“Battered women, undoubtedly particularly those whose spouses are a criminal element, find new identities,” Byron explained.
“Did you find evidence of a new identity?” I queried.
He shook his head. “And I looked. But just to say, a new identity is put in place for precisely this reason. So no one can find you. I would assume, since Knox certainly told them of his family history, they would assume this was the reason she left no footprint.”
He was making sense, but I didn’t like this.
Something was hinky about it.
She told Knox she had no money and that was why she kept away.