Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 98264 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 491(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98264 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 491(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
“What?” Thea exclaimed.
My body tensed. “Well, we haven’t made any final plans yet.”
“But it’s happening,” Nora stated. “And I don’t want to hear a peep about it from either one of you. As soon as you’re allowed, you two will be off traveling the world together. Maybe you can stop by our place in the city sometime.”
“Oh, thank fuck.” Ramsey let out a loud belly laugh. “Leaving you alone in Clovert has been a nightmare. Now, if we could only figure out how to get Joe and Misty out of here too.”
“Shit,” Thea said, jumping to her feet, causing her husband to jump with her. “We promised Dad we’d be at his house a half hour ago. Misty is making some kind of casserole for lunch and we need to stop and grab something to eat in the car on the way over.” She shot me a tight smile. “Word to the wise, never eat anything that woman cooks.”
“Especially not the pot roast,” Thea and Nora stated in unison before dissolving into a fit of laughter.
“Duly noted.” I nodded, rising to start cleaning up.
Nora’s eyes lit as she stood and wrapped her arms around my waist. “Hey, why don’t we go over there too? I could formally introduce my boyfriend to the family.”
Fuck me. I was a grown ass-man with a career and a car payment the way God intended, but I was damn near giddy at the idea of being Nora’s boyfriend.
I waggled my eyebrows. “Your boyfriend, huh? Sounds like a promotion.”
“Long overdue.” She patted my chest and then pursed her lips, asking for a kiss.
Who was I to deny such a request?
While Ramsey and I cleared the table, our women huddled together, sharing whispers and giggles. I was in the same clothes I’d worn to Nora’s house the morning before—although I hadn’t been wearing them for the majority of our activities—but I liked the idea of changing into something clean before heading to her dad’s for lunch. We agreed to meet at Joe’s after Nora and I swung by the Clovert Inn so I could change and check out. Hellhole hotel aside, I wasn’t spending another night without Nora.
We all walked out the front door and started down the sidewalk to our respective vehicles. Four people smiling and laughing genuinely happy for the first time in, well, possibly ever. It should have been my first clue that all hell was about to break loose.
“You son of a bitch!” Jonathan Caskey roared as he came storming through Nora’s front lawn. He was in plain clothes, but his cruiser was pulled up on the curb, two tires parked in the grass.
My whole body went on alert, and in the next second, Ramsey was at my side, Thea and Nora forced behind us. While I had every bit of faith that Ramsey could hold his own, I’d worked my ass off to get him out of prison and not for another damn Caskey to send him back.
“Take the girls inside,” I said.
“Fuck that!” Thea shouted, fighting to step around her husband.
“Don’t make this worse, Sparrow,” Ramsey rumbled as Jonathan continued to advance.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Nora chimed in, stepping around me.
Which was fan-fucking-tastic. No one had gone inside. Mr. Out On Parole, Miss Out On Bail, and Mrs. Flat-Out Pissed-Off were all at risk of getting tangled in this clusterfuck.
“Just stay here and let me handle this.” I walked away from the group, meeting Jonathan in the middle of the yard with plans to send him right back in the direction he’d come. “Nope. We are not doing this here. Not today. Fuck…maybe not ever.”
“I told you to call off your goddamn dog!” he yelled, spit spraying onto my face.
I gritted my teeth. “And I said drop the charges against Nora.”
Narrowing my eyes, I took a second to really take Jonathan in. Unkempt clothes hung on a frame that was far thinner than it had appeared when he had been in uniform. His hands shook, and his dark, sunken eyes continuously scanned the yard, never lingering for longer than a beat.
“This is not a fucking negotiation!” he boomed. “You have no motherfucking idea who the hell you are dealing with right now.”
I laughed humorlessly. “I think you’ve made it pretty clear that I’m dealing with a crooked cop who gets his rocks off playing God with innocent people's lives.”
“You think I give one single fuck about your whore or her cock-sucking family?”
My vision flashed red for an instant before time suddenly slowed to a crawl.
Everyone moved at once, the explosion of chaos rocking me back onto my heels.
Thea shouted something behind me, and on instinct, I turned at the sound.
Ramsey hooked her around the stomach before she had a chance to get more than a few steps away from him.