Total pages in book: 31
Estimated words: 28998 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 145(@200wpm)___ 116(@250wpm)___ 97(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 28998 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 145(@200wpm)___ 116(@250wpm)___ 97(@300wpm)
Mira is mine. I know that in my bones.
So why is it that I feel like I’m losing her?
The same two guards from last night are at the gate again, but this time I just pull right up and park in front of them. They both glance nervously at each other, clearly wondering if they’ll actually have to do their job today.
“Let me in,” I growl. They don’t move.
“She won’t see you,” one of them says. “You’re not welcome here, pal.”
My stomach twists like I’ve been speared by a hot poker. “No. Mira wouldn’t say that. You’re lying. Go and get her. Now.”
They shake their heads and step forward as a unit.
“Tyler said you’d say that.” My heart lurches. Tyler? What’s that bastard gotten up to now? “He said to tell you that the engagement is back on.”
The air drains from my lungs. The whole world seems to twist around me.
“What?” I snarl, clenching my fists.
“You heard him,” a new voice calls out.
Tyler.
I glance past the guards and see him through the gate, a smarmy grin on his face, suit jacket slung over his shoulder like he already owns the Coolidge estate. “Sorry, grease monkey. You were a nice little distraction, but that’s all. Just a little fling, and that’s over now.”
My rage boils over, and I lunge forward. The guards actually leap out of my way, but the gate is locked and won’t budge. Tyler stands behind it like he’s actually tough, when in reality, I’d beat him to a bloody pulp if I could get my hands on him.
“You piece of shit! We had a deal!”
“You mean your blackmail deal?” He laughs. “Yeah, that’s over. Mira’s mine now. And if you ever try to come near her again, I’ll have you buried so deep in lawsuits that you’ll be fixing lawnmowers to make money to buy dried noodles.”
I slam my fist into the metal gate. Pain floods my knuckles, but I ignore it. Tyler grins one more time, looks at me like I’m just an ant in his universe, then turns his back on me and walks away.
“Come on, pal, get going,” one of the guards says to me. I turn to him and glare. That shuts him up.
It can’t be possible. Why wouldn’t Mira want to see me? Why on earth would she be engaged to Tyler again? Something’s not right. And I’ll be damned if I just sit around and let the woman I love slip away from me.
The Heartless Bastards clubhouse is packed tonight, but I’m in my own little world, nursing a whiskey at the bar as laughter and chatter goes on all around me. Mira still isn’t answering my calls. In fact, they’re going straight to voicemail now, which means either she’s blocked me, or Tyler’s done it for her.
He has to be manipulating her somehow. There’s no way she’d just bail on me like that. Not after everything we’ve gone through together. Not after last night.
A heavy palm lands on my shoulder, and I look up to see Grady standing over me with a big grin plastered over his face.
“You look like hell.”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” I groan. “You wanna join me?”
“Actually, I’ve got something interesting for you.”
Thankfully, I’ve only had one drink this evening and am still level-headed. But whatever Grady’s playing it, I need him to get to the point.
“Spit it out,” I tell him. “My mood is shit.”
For some reason, this makes Grady’s grin grow. He pulls out his phone, thumbs through it, and pulls up a blurry video clip of some girl, clearly hammered, dancing in a booth at the strip club with her friends.
“Okay?” I shrug.
“Aurora,” he says. “One of the new girls at Red Tiger. Me and some of the boys were just over there.”
I’m getting annoyed now. I’ve got more to worry about tonight than some stripper. “And you found out she’s your cousin?”
Grady chuckles and rolls his eyes. “As you can see, she was pretty wasted. I overheard her bragging to her friend that ‘some rich douchebag’ paid her five grand to fake some photos so he could ‘win his wife back or something.’”
My body freezes.
“What?”
Grady nods, his eyes blazing. “I didn’t pay it much mind until I heard her mention getting back at some biker guy. And that got me thinking about you and that rich girl who came around the shop a couple of times.”
My heart is pounding so hard I’m sure it’s about to explode. “Grady, tell me what you found out.”
“Why don’t I have her tell you herself?” He turns to the door, and I see the girl from the video standing there waiting. Yeah, he brought her with him. He motions to her, and she scampers over, tugging her skirt down so it doesn’t come up over her hips. She stops in front of me and eyes me up and down with zero shame. Like I’m being medically examined or something.