Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 61337 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 307(@200wpm)___ 245(@250wpm)___ 204(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61337 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 307(@200wpm)___ 245(@250wpm)___ 204(@300wpm)
Walking out of her room and into her small-ass living area, I stop. That’s when I see a photograph I didn’t recognize before. It’s hidden just behind where her television is located—it’s a picture of some guy and her. Placing it back down, I walk straight out of her apartment and drive back to D’s house. They’re out the back and I can hear their shouting before I even get out of the car. Thankfully D’s neighbors are far enough away that no one can hear them being dickheads. They are all drunk. Each has a gun in their hand and they’re aiming it at the beach trying to hit a can. Each of them fail due to the excessive alcohol in their system, and the waves which keep taking each can out into the ocean every time they place one down.
“Go and hold the can,” Falcon says aggressively to Echo, who flips him off.
“Fuck off, that water’s cold. And you’re a shit shot.” He looks back and sees me standing not far from them. “You didn’t stay with that beauty?” he asks making all three turn around. Falcon raises his eyebrows at me, waiting for me to answer.
“What are you doing?” I know what they’re doing, they do it often when they get too fucking drunk. Shoot shit up.
“Echo’s being a pussy and won’t hold the can still,” Falcon says making D laugh loudly.
“He doesn’t want to get shot again by you, you idiot,” D says, shaking his head then plops down on the beach.
The sun is starting to rise.
“It was hardly a shot—to him.”
Echo lifts up his shirt. Points to a bullet hole. “That’s a shot, you ass. From you.”
I’m usually the sober one, while they’re always the drunken idiots. Sitting down on the beach, Darby and I watch as they argue back and forth on who shot who, and if it really happened. It did, Falcon just doesn’t like to admit he’s a shit shot when he’s drinking.
“You left her, didn’t you?” Darby doesn’t say it loud enough for them to hear, but I nod anyway. He shakes his at my response. “Just because it’s new doesn’t mean it is bad.”
“It’s bad,” I tell him straight up. He doesn’t know the circumstances surrounding her yet. If he did, he wouldn’t be encouraging it. So I’m going to keep that to myself for a bit longer until I work out what to do with it all.
“Well, we can already see what you see in her. But Creed—” He looks to me, “Don’t fuck it up.” Darby stands, lifting the gun and shooting the can that Echo puts down for Falcon, who swears loudly at D’s shot and throws his own gun into the water.
I haven’t texted her, haven’t seen her for a day. She had yesterday off, it was one of the reasons we took her the other night. I don’t know how to navigate around her, not sure what to do and what’s right. Following what’s right is something I’m not good at, I tend to flow to the beat of my own drum. And that’s gotten me through life this far pretty damn well.
As I walk into work and see her behind the bar, she takes one look at me and averts her gaze. Johnny touches her shoulder and she manages to softly smile at him before a customer gains her attention. She’s good, her fake smile is automatically plastered on her beautiful face as she serves him.
“You stare at her like you’re starved, you know that?” I turn to see Bethany standing behind me watching me staring. Averting my gaze to her, I don’t look back to Elicea.
“How would you know if I’m starved, Bethany.”
She laughs at me. “You do know what I do for work, don’t you? You did hire me after all, men are a specialty of mine. You should know that.”
“What do you need, Bethany?”
She looks back at Elicea and crosses her hands over her chest. “Sabrina hasn’t come in, and I can’t get hold of her.”
Fuck! That means I need a new girl. That was Sabrina’s last chance, I won’t be dealing with her again.
“I’ll handle it.”
“We need a girl by the weekend.”
I narrow my eyes at her. “I said—I’ll handle it.”
Bethany rolls her eyes before she walks off.
Stepping straight to the bar, I walk up to Elicea. Johnny’s standing beside her but backs away when he sees me coming. “Follow me.”
Elicea places down her cleaning cloth behind the counter and walks around the bar to my side and we head upstairs. I wave my hand indicating she goes first, and she does so without a word. Following up behind her was probably not the wisest choice because watching that ass is too much. Echo’s standing in the hallway outside of our offices, his cell glued to his ear as a painful expression is written on his face. He spots us, and I see Elicea offer him a small wave to which he looks stunned, surprised, then waves back before he turns whispering into his cell. My eyes are still on her ass as I manage to open my door and shut it after we walk in. She stands still, her hands by her side as she looks up to me.