Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 91461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
“He means no harm,” Anne said instead of, it was his father, not him.
“Good. That’s good,” Hannah stated, slipped around me to kiss her aunt’s cheek, and then was gone. She was still directing more food being put out.
“Isn’t the threat normally ‘they’ll never find the body’?” Isabelle asked me.
“Yes,” Duncan said as he stepped in beside me, smiling. “But really, finding parts for weeks is much more gruesome, as you have to figure, at least for a bit, some of the parts the person they’re searching for can, in fact, live without.”
“Which means they're being cut off,” I surmised.
“Correct,” Duncan stated.
“Feet,” Aja offered.
“Yes,” Duncan confirmed. “Legs, same thing. Even hands, arms, so that part, really, is much worse. Finding a body intact is better.”
Isabelle turned to me. “Your girl is a bit scary, Jory.”
“You have no idea,” I told her.
“It’s true,” Duncan confirmed, holding out his hand. “She is very scary, but she uses her power for good so…there’s that. By the way, I’m Duncan Stiel, pleasure to meet you.”
She was very happy to meet him, as well as my handsome husband, who joined us moments later, stepping between me and Aja so he could put an arm around each of us. Isabelle could not hide her reaction to Sam Kage; most people couldn’t. He was a breathtaking, as I’d thought from the moment I first laid eyes on him, and if your taste ran to muscles and laugh lines, broad shoulders and dancing slate-blue eyes, there was no need to look any further.
Kola and Finn came over so Finn could show off his Claddagh ring that Kola got him, and Anne was touched, seeing our sons so happy. The way they looked at each other was beautiful. I saw Wick and Harper in the kitchen grinning at each other and then Hannah draped over Jake’s back as he ate. They were all adorable.
I really hoped that Eammon would grow to see that my son was the best thing for his, but that was his epiphany to have. I already knew the truth.
Aja took a breath, leaned forward a bit so she could see around Sam, to me. “Hey, I’m not sure who all is coming tomorrow with me, Dane, and the kids to the rally downtown.”
“Oh, it’s me, of course, all the kids, Dylan, Chris, her kids, Harper’s folks, and I’m missing someone, but I’ll check my phone and figure it out. My better half here has to work, even though it’s Saturday, so he can’t be there, but the rest of us will be at your place first thing in the morning. I figure we can walk from there.”
“Perfect,” she said, smiling at me, and then looked up to meet Sam’s gaze. “Why do you have to work?”
He gave her a last squeeze and let her go, but kept his arm around me. “I don’t know if you saw on the news about the deputy US marshal who got picked up by ICE agents in Tucson?”
She nodded. “I did.”
“Well, we’re having conversations about that, and Tom Kenwood, my boss, has been breathing fire for days, even though the marshal in question wasn’t ours.”
I watched her study his face. “You haven’t been breathing fire yourself?”
“Are you kidding?”
She grinned, knowing, as we all did, that putting your hands on any of Sam Kage’s people was a huge mistake. It would not go well, and Sam could be terribly creative when his need for revenge was triggered. Best to simply steer clear of him.
Later, Sam and I were sitting in a quiet corner of the apartment with Dane and Aja, when Hannah came over and took a seat down beside me on a folding chair.
“I have something I want to talk to you two about.”
“Oh, we can go inside,” Aja said, starting to stand.
“No.” Hannah stopped her. “I would prefer if you two stayed,” she said, waving at someone to join us.
Duncan came outside then, and took a seat next to Sam.
“Do you have him?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Duncan replied, and turned his phone around and there was Aaron, on FaceTime from Italy, looking concerned.
“First off, thank you for having Finn’s ring made for Kola,” Hannah said with a sigh, smiling at him. “And thank you for not telling him exactly how much it cost.”
“You paid the difference,” he reminded her.
“Yeah, but still.”
I didn’t even want to guess how much the heavy piece of platinum was.
“Okay,” she began, glancing around at all of us. “I have a plan.”
“What kind of plan?” Aja asked, leaning forward to look at her niece.
Hannah took a breath. “I’ve given this a lot of thought, and after I graduate this winter, as I start grad school, I’m going to start trying to get pregnant.”
I was stunned and could only stare at her. A baby? With everything? With the world the way it was? And I knew, logically, there was never a perfect time to have a child, but now? I was terrified for her.