Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 140604 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 703(@200wpm)___ 562(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140604 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 703(@200wpm)___ 562(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
“How would you know that?”
“Because it’s why I didn’t tell Sam for years. I expressed my love for him through the women we shared. It’s funny how when you finally find the right one, all that anxiety melts away and what’s left is your family. Don’t be afraid. You’re the one who hopes. You’re the one who believes. Who sees the truth and doesn’t doubt it. That’s your place. Take it. Open the door because you know what you’ll find behind it.”
Somehow it was easier now, and he pushed through. The guard told him he’d come in earlier and unlocked the cell since Keane and Olivia were the only ones being held now, and he wasn’t going to put Jack Barnes’s daughter through the humiliation of using the open toilet. He said they’d been waiting patiently for the paperwork to be done.
Were they patiently together or sitting coldly apart?
Either way, he would make it right. They would walk out of here together.
He stepped inside, and all those worries vanished because they weren’t sitting side by side or opposite each other. Olivia was on Keane’s lap and he had his tongue at least halfway down her throat. Such a sexy picture they made. Even in a jail cell.
“Told you,” Jack said with a chuckle.
Olivia’s head came up, and for a moment she smiled at them. “Hey, Garrett. I talked our Master out of doing stupid things.”
Garrett moved to the door, swinging it open. “I’m glad. Now let me get you both home.”
She went from cuddly kitten to predatory cat when her eyes landed on her father.
Jack stiffened behind him. “See, when her eyes flash fire like that, you should start apologizing.” He gave his daughter a gentle smile. “Now, sweetheart, I was only looking out for you.”
She rose off Keane’s lap like a goddess of vengeance. Her dad was right. Her eyes did flash fire. She pointed a judgmental finger her father’s way. “You were looking out for me by getting my boyfriend shoved in jail?”
Keane sat back, seeming to try his hardest to keep the grin off his face.
“Now, in my defense,” Jack began, “most of what I heard was that you were horribly poisoned, and he had done it before.”
Keane held up a hand. He wasn’t the stiff, frozen man he’d been the last time Garrett had seen him. He was relaxed and a little playful. “Nah. I don’t bother with poisons or drugs, sir. And I would never hit a lady. I did, however, beat the shit out of a pervert man who was raping a fifteen-year-old girl. I would do it again.”
Jack turned to him. “Except this time you would keep going, son. It is best once you start a thing to finish it off. We got a lot of land. Person can disappear on it real easy. Just let me know because I will admit I’m pretty sure Julian’s used it a couple of times. We should figure out where those bodies are.”
“Hey, I’m your lawyer,” Garrett pointed out as Olivia approached. “Let’s leave me out of the body-burying portions of the family fun nights.”
Olivia ignored them all, preferring to expend her righteous fury on her father. “You didn’t even wait to talk to me. You sat down and started plotting with the sheriff. Since when are you the best of friends?”
“Well, now I will admit I’m friendlier with the man when I’m worried about my baby girl,” Jack replied even as he took a step back.
“Don’t think you can run,” Olivia said before turning to Garrett. She went on her toes and pressed a light kiss on his lips. “We have a lot of talking to do, but I think we should do it in the playroom later tonight.”
His whole body responded to those words. “I can handle that.”
“But Olivia, that is my playroom,” her father said weakly, as though the very thought made him sick to his stomach.
“Well, if you didn’t want to know what happens there, you should have kept your nose out of my relationship.” She stood toe to toe with her much taller, bigger and more intimidating father. “Tell me something. Were you at least nice to Garrett? Or did you accuse him, too?”
It looked like she had her father handled. He walked into the cell where Keane was standing now. He wasn’t rushing out. He seemed perfectly comfortable that the door wasn’t about to close again. “Are you okay?”
Keane stared at him for a moment. Not an anxious stare, where he was trying to figure something out. It was like Keane was trying to memorize him. Keane stepped in, getting closer than he normally would. His hand came up to cup the back of Garrett’s neck like he’d seen him do to Olivia at least twice a day. It was an intimate hold, a dominant touch. It stirred something inside Garrett that had been sleeping for a long time.