Total pages in book: 156
Estimated words: 160192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 801(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 534(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 801(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 534(@300wpm)
Taking in a deep breath, Jared let it out slowly.
See? He could totally be reasonable.
“Pfft you’re no fun,” Tabby told Razor.
“I know, baby. I’m the fun police. Let me talk to Jared a moment.”
Great. What could Razor possibly want to speak to him about?
“Don’t tell my cousin what to do,” Jared growled at him.
All right. So perhaps he wasn’t that reasonable.
Razor sighed. “I’m going to ignore that. Is everything good?”
Jared raised his eyebrows. “Why wouldn’t it be?”
“Just checking in.
That seemed odd. He had no idea why he’d do that. Or why he would care. After several inane questions, he knew he needed to end the call before he snapped at Razor to mind his own business.
Once upon a time, he might have appreciated someone checking in. Now . . . he wanted to keep his distance from as many people as possible.
The less people he cared about . . . the less people he could fail.
The less people he could lose.
3
Angie couldn’t believe it.
She finally had her own place. She didn’t think she’d ever get the chance to live on her own again.
She’d thought that she would always have to have someone watching over her.
But after the wedding, Keira had gone into bat for her. And now look . . . she had her own small house in a good neighborhood.
Sure, Zander and Keira had helped her get this house. But she would pay them back one day.
For the moment, she was just happy to have some freedom.
“Right, all of the cameras are in,” Miles said, coming out of the house. “You have state-of-the-art security now.”
“Which wasn’t necessary,” she said. “But thanks, Miles. I really appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome,” he replied, looking slightly surprised. “You don’t have to thank me.”
“Oh, right, because you’re doing your job? You should still get thanked though, right?” she asked.
“No, not because of that. Because we’re family.”
Angie blinked at him rapidly. “We are?” She’d lived in the compound for two years now, so she felt like she knew Miles well.
However, she didn’t realize that he considered himself family.
“Thanks, Miles,” she said again. “I . . . I will miss you guys.”
It was a huge admission from someone who found it hard to talk about her feelings. To admit to caring about someone.
Angie knew it was her upbringing. She found it difficult to attach herself to people in case they let her down or hurt her.
But Miles had never done that. All he’d ever been was sweet and nice.
Should she hug him?
She wasn’t a hugger. Physical touch was difficult for her. However, this was Miles.
“I feel like we should hug. Should we?” she asked awkwardly.
He gave her a sweet smile and pushed his glasses up on his nose. “I think we can just say we did and that’s good. I’m not always good at physical touch either.”
“Why not?” she asked fiercely. “Did someone hurt you?”
Who was she going to kill? Because she might be hopeless at defending herself, but she would go into battle for anyone she cared about.
And despite her best efforts to keep a distance from these guys, she did care about him. About all of them, she guessed.
Keira had found herself quite the family and Angie was almost . . . jealous.
She was included, of course. They all made certain of that. But it had never truly felt like her home. In fact, sometimes it had felt like another sort of cage.
Well, she should be used to those by now. Seems she was always in a cage of one sort of another.
At least no one hurt her in this one.
She just had a hard time letting anyone care for her.
“I don’t like this,” Zander said loudly as he stepped out of the house and glanced around. It was at the edge of a residential area. He’d chosen a house with high fences. One that could be easily secured, and they could visit without too much notice. She couldn’t even see her neighbors when she was on her property.
Which also felt a bit cage-like. But she hadn’t wanted to protest too much.
There was even an electric gate. She didn’t see how she could be any more secure.
She and Miles shared a look at Zander’s words.
This was something that had taken him months to come to terms with. And then once he’d agreed, he’d spent a long time finding the perfect house for her.
Honestly, she hadn’t thought it would ever come about. But, finally, six months after the wedding, here she was.
As long as he didn’t change his mind.
With Zander, you never knew. He was so paranoid that he saw issues everywhere, he trusted no one except the people in his team and Keira.
But Angie knew that he also had a big heart.
“I love it,” Keira said as she walked onto the small porch.
She had a porch! She could almost jump in glee. Too bad no one would see it if she wanted to decorate for Halloween and Christmas.