Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 103552 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103552 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
“That would be awesome. Sweet and spicy. I can give her the flavor profile—” The idea exploded into my brain, chasing off my anger. “Sterling, you’re brilliant.”
“I know. It’s a curse.” She slung an arm around my shoulder, giving me a tight hug. “You okay?”
I shrugged. “Yeah, I guess. I’m just frustrated and annoyed that the default is always doubt that I can run my brewery. Because I’m young. Because I’m a woman. Because I’m a Sawyer. There’s always a question mark. I don’t want to have to prove myself all the time. I just want to make really good beer and sell it at a decent price so I can keep my doors open and pay my staff. All of the rest of this sucks.”
“Yeah, it really does. You want some good news?”
“Yeah.” I suddenly remembered why I’d been nervous about coming in. But Sterling didn’t look like she was digging for sisterly gossip. This was something else. “What’s up?” I asked.
“I know it’s been a while, but I gave Emmett the name of that jewelry designer.”
I allowed myself a wave of relief that she didn’t know about West, at least not yet. There was no way she’d be talking about the jewelry designer if she knew I’d spent last night with him.
“Emmett?” I asked.
“You know, Hawk’s friend.” She bit her lower lip, pausing.
I decided to take pity on her. “I know, the one we’re not supposed to talk about, who kidnapped Quinn. He’s helping you learn cybersecurity stuff.” I knew cybersecurity stuff didn’t really cover what Sterling was doing, but the accounting software on my laptop was as techy as I got, so it was the best I could do.
“Yeah,” Sterling confirmed. “He works for Sinclair Security now. And if those guys can’t find somebody, they don’t exist. He said this one took a little bit because they had an all-hands-on-deck situation over there. So, he had to put it on the back burner for a few days, and then the name the jewelry designer works under is actually a pseudonym, a DBA, doing business as kind of thing. So, it took a little bit longer to find out who she is, but—” Sterling lifted a Post-it. “I have an address.”
“No shit. Really?” The call from Bob James and Matthew’s bullshit slid into the background. “That’s very interesting.” I reached for the Post-it, but Sterling tucked it in her back pocket.
“Nuh-uh, not without me.”
The front door opened. “Not without you, what?” I heard West say from behind me.
“Hey,” I said, spinning around to see him filling the doorway, his cheeks pink from the chill in the air, his dark eyes curious.
A stab of pure lust hit me so hard I almost gasped. Fuck. I had it bad.
“What are you doing here?” Sterling asked, one eyebrow raised in suspicion.
“I heard Avery was here.” West looked between us and grinned. “Since the two of you together means trouble, I thought I’d stop in. Where are you going?” he asked Sterling.
“Nowhere,” she lied.
“Uh-huh.” West crossed his arms over his chest. “Sterling?”
She crossed her arms over her chest and lifted her chin. “Nowhere,” she said again.
“Look,” West shook his head. “I talked to Griffen. I know you two aren’t going to let this go. Fair enough. I want to find out who killed your father and put Ford in prison just as much as you do. I’m not having a lot of luck doing it my way,” he admitted. “And I know you can do things I can’t.”
Sterling’s defiant expression cracked, the side of her mouth curving in a grin. “True,” she agreed.
“I’m not going to break the law, but if you have information—something we can follow up on—I can help you with that. If we find who did this to your dad, to your brother, we need to do it right,” he said. “So they can end up in prison. The last thing we want is to find out who it is and fuck it up, so they get off on a technicality.”
Sterling dropped her arms to her sides. “Yeah, good point.” She looked at me, raising an eyebrow.
I let out a breath. I was at my limit with men telling me what to do for the day. But this was West. He wasn’t like that, even when he was being bossy and annoying. And on top of that, working together wasn’t the worst idea in the world. It didn’t mean he had to be in charge. I looked at him, absorbing the patience and intelligence in his eyes. I could trust West. I wanted to trust West. He wasn’t Matthew. He wouldn’t diminish or disregard me. He could have tried to manipulate, but instead, he’d laid it out.
I turned to Sterling. “I think we should let him help.” Sterling rolled her eyes. “He has a gun,” I added. “Who knows, maybe the jewelry designer is dangerous.”