Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 92843 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92843 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
“What the fuck?” I repeated, barely containing my anger.
“Viktor got the call, went to the scene, and called me. On his way back, he looked at Otis’s bank records and saw more than four hundred thousand dollars in small payments over the last nineteen months.” He was struggling to contain the anger now, and his Russian accent was becoming more pronounced as a result. “You are to come to my office now.”
“I’ll be there,” I assured him and hung up, staring blankly at the wall for a moment before I turned back to Nell. “I’ve got to go, baby, but I need your number first.”
I knew she’d heard the conversation, but I also knew she wouldn’t ask about it or discuss it with anyone. It’s the way she was. “No, you don’t.”
“I need to be able to check on you and the boys.”
“Then call my brother or the hospital,” she replied firmly. “Or better yet, go and do your thing, and then go home to your wife, fuck her brains out, put a baby in her, and leave us alone.”
The words stung in more ways than one, and the fact that I couldn’t clear it up with her right now frustrated me hugely.
Penelope Hamilton was an anomaly to the life she’d been raised in with the Road Kings MC. She was sweet, caring, rarely lost her temper, was never rude, and treated everyone like family.
The Nell I was dealing with now was the one I’d caused, so I deserved all of it. I’d done that—I’d brought out a side of her that was the opposite of her natural one.
Still.
“When I get back, we’re going to discuss it,” I told her as I moved to the door. “And when I call you later, you will pick up the phone.”
She didn’t have to say the words out loud, because the look on her face told me clearly where she thought I could stick my phone call.
Chapter Five
Nell
Eight days later…
What a difference a week made.
I could walk upright again, and it didn’t cause me anywhere near as much pain as before. I had on a pair of cotton shorts that I hadn’t worn in months because they hadn’t fit around my bump, and even though they were still a size bigger than I wore before the twins, I could see my toes again. Every little bit counted right now.
And my sons were doing awesomely.
They’d just been moved to the regular nursery in the hospital. Walker, aka Baby A, now weighed five pounds and one ounce. Hendrix, aka Baby B, was four pounds and eleven ounces.
The doctor had said this morning that I’d probably be bringing them home with me next week unless there were any problems, and I couldn’t wait.
That’s why I was excitedly bouncing on the balls of my feet as I waited in the private room they always put me in with them during the day.
I got to stay here with them for eight hours every day, either feeding them, bathing them, or watching them sleep, and then I went home when they were put back in the nursery. It was a special arrangement that I hadn’t had to ask for, and I loved it.
When the door opened this morning, though, it wasn’t the nurses pushing the boys like usual. It was my brother who came through it, looking exhausted.
I hadn’t seen him since the day after I’d had the babies, when he’d had to go deal with something for the club.
Incidentally, I hadn’t seen Taras either, but I refused to let myself be hurt by that.
“Hey, stranger! Come to see your nephews?”
Shooting me a tired smile, he collapsed into one of the chairs. “Heard you gave them shit names, Nell, so I had to come and offer them a shoulder.”
He was full of it. My names were the best names ever, way better than his and his Club one. “Sure thing, Jaeger.”
The joke was that it meant the same thing in German as his actual name, but he swore it sounded more sinister. Only a handful of people got to call him by his real name, and hearing me joke about it was like calling his bike a crotch rocket.
The glare I got in return would probably have shriveled the balls of any man, but I didn’t have any to shrivel, and they wouldn’t even if I did.
As soon as it began, it disappeared, and he looked me over. “You look better than the last time I saw you, Nell. How you feeling?”
It had been a long recovery from both the blast and the birth, but this morning was better than yesterday’s, and yesterday’s was better than the day before, so I figured I was going to survive.
“It was rough for the first four days, but then it started to get easier. I get the stitches in my back out in two days, so that’s one less thing to worry about. The boys are getting bigger, have you seen them?”