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)
Garrett looked around the parking lot and then walked off, leaving him to hand Gwen a twenty-dollar bill.
He wasn’t sure how Muffin was alive. This time around he and Garrett had gotten a long recitation of everything that was wrong with that dog.
Anxiety, bad knees, perpetual weird sneezes, terrible breath, and whatever made her eyes so bugged out.
But he kind of liked that she liked him. Maybe it wouldn’t be terrible to have a dog. A working dog. A shepherd or a retriever.
And he also kind of liked Gwen. She was weird. He liked weird. Huh. It was funny that he spent so much time trying to survive and then trying to keep his job and please everyone around him so he didn’t fuck things up for Garrett, that he had never considered what he liked outside of sex and food.
He liked dogs and weird people. “Ms. Gwen, we’ll make our way from here. I think Garrett already found what we’re looking for.”
They were looking for the vehicle their pretty princess had sped away in.
“It’s the same SUV from the security footage.” Garrett jogged up. “She’s still here. I checked the plate and it matches.”
It had been hours since Olivia walked out on them, and Keane was equal parts ready to leave and ready to spank her ass silly and explain why she was never going to do that again.
She ran. She’d been on the edge of agreeing to Garrett’s proposal but she’d run, and wasn’t that interesting.
Olivia Barnes-Fleetwood was a badass bitch who took no crap from anyone.
Unless her heart was involved. He’d talked to several of the hands who adored her. They said she was a fair boss and genuinely thoughtful, but they knew she sometimes had a hard time with the men she negotiated with. She was used to hard negotiations when it came to business.
So why run?
The part of himself that was still an eight-year-old kid trying to survive the day thought she’d run because she didn’t want him.
The confident man who knew how to read a sub was starting to think she’d run for the opposite reason.
So they’d done some research, and lucky for them the household security cams weren’t all that hard to break into. Garrett wasn’t a hacker, per se, but he had some skills.
And Keane was the one who went to prison. Lucky him.
“Any idea who the women at the door were?” Keane asked.
“I think it’s Trev McNamara’s daughter and Gigi Dawson. You haven’t met Win Dawson and his wife, Naomi, yet, but I’ve had a couple of meetings with him. From what Bobby told me they’re some of Olivia’s closest friends.”
So safety had shown up and she bolted.
He should have taken that as her answer and headed to the bunkhouse, but he’d caught sight of a picture of her as a kid all wild hair and happy smiles. Josh had stood in the background, obviously younger but far more serious and stern than his sister. Jack and Sam and Abby had looked on at their kids, but it was clear that Olivia was the sun in the sky.
When was the last time Olivia Barnes-Fleetwood had that carefree smile on her face? He knew the answer. It was the night before when she let herself go. He would bet a lot that she rarely let herself go that way.
But they had gotten her there. Briefly. They could do it again.
When he figured out she needed him, he put aside his protective barriers and decided it was time to take her at her word. She wanted them to help her. Well, he was going to help her.
“Did you ask Bobby about them?” Keane asked. They had exchanged numbers the night before. Bobby was a protective friend who wanted all the information he could have since Olivia wanted none. So when she ran, Garrett had texted.
It took a while, but the guy texted back and he seemed concerned.
“He said she’s not usually like this. He said she usually stands her ground and fights when she needs to. I think he was worried about her. Especially when I mentioned the name Scott,” Garrett explained. “It was a bad time, apparently. Bobby said maybe we should go back to Olivia’s and cook her dinner and wait for her to come home. She’s probably nervous.”
“So she goes out drinking with her friends?” Keane opened the door, and raucous music blasted through him. The Barn was hopping for a Sunday night. It was a luxurious roadhouse trying to fit in with touches of a broke-down bar. The trouble was Keane had been to actual broke-down bars, and this place was pretending. Inside there were groups of women chatting over margaritas and a bunch of guys staring at the Rangers game on the big screen while they downed beers and talked about the coaching staff.