Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 125517 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 628(@200wpm)___ 502(@250wpm)___ 418(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125517 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 628(@200wpm)___ 502(@250wpm)___ 418(@300wpm)
Doom and all the brothers watched Tink leave in stunned silence.
Shade looked away from the door to give Doom a wry glance. “She’s your woman?”
“Yes.” Doom said proudly.
Shade’s gaze shifted to Wizard and Burn, who appeared as stupefied as he felt. “I wouldn’t worry about her motives. You’re good.”
CHAPTER 46
THE CLAIM
“I agree.” Doom was able to swallow the lump in his throat once Tink had left. “Tink doesn’t have a vindictive bone in her body.”
“Arden?” Andy asked.
“I call her Tink,” Doom confirmed who he was talking about.
“No, she doesn’t. Who said she did?”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s going to be dealt with.” Doom looked at him. “How do you know Lucky and Shade?”
“I met Lucky when I worked undercover for the ATF. Lucky introduced me to Shade. Every now and then, Lucky and I would be in the city working, and we’d share a beer or two. Shade came with Lucky a couple of times.”
“He was Lucky’s commander at one time.” Shade’s normally expressionless face held a look Doom couldn’t decipher. “Deacon risked a high-priority case to save Lily’s life.”
Doom wanted to smack his forehead as the memory returned. When Lily had gone missing, Viper had sent for the brothers here to get to Treepoint. Once Lily had been recovered, he had stopped by the sheriff’s office before leaving to say goodbye to Knox. While he was at the receptionist desk, he had seen Lucky and a man leave Knox’s office. The man had left without glancing in his direction. At the time, Doom hadn’t paid any attention to the stranger when Lucky noticed him coming to greet him. The stranger had been Andy.
Doom tried not to blame himself for not recognizing him; Andy was a shadow of the man he had only gotten a fleeting glance of years ago.
“I never could tell Lucky no when he asked for a favor,” Andy said ruefully.
The explanation allowed Doom to realize it was gratitude Shade felt toward Andy.
“When I asked Lucky what you were up to, he said you hadn’t been responding to his texts or messages.” Shade said reproachfully.
“I was too embarrassed to talk to him. Might as well tell you before Doom does. I haven’t been living in the best of circumstances. The last case I worked, I fell in love with my informant. I jeopardized the case and lost my job. I didn’t care. I’d do it different if I could, but I didn’t realize I loved her until it was too late. My gut was telling me she had been made as snitch when a meet was rescheduled. When I tried to pull her out of the meet, I was overruled, and she was sent in. I knew it was going bad when they started questioning her instead of talking about business. I saw one of them pull a gun. I never let him get the shot off. I went in and got her ass out. All the work in trying to get the arrest couldn’t be used because of my involvement with her. I should have retired, but if I had, I would have never met Lizzie.
“I never regretted losing everything I had. She was a drug addict who promised every single fucking day she would kick it. Then, by noon, she would be begging me to help her. I put her through three stints in rehab. I spent my last dime to get her to a rehab center in Ohio. The day before she was supposed to go, I caught her taking a bottle of pills. I stopped pressuring her after that. You want to know something funny?”
Doom had a feeling it wasn’t going to be funny, so he didn’t speak up. No one else did either. Andy told them anyway, despite their lack of response.
Concentrating on Margarita and Kat, who had maneuvered themselves through the brothers so they could listen, helped him keep the emotions assailing through him in check. Unlike the brothers, he didn’t have to imagine the connection between Andy and Lizzie; he had witnessed it himself.
“Lizzie asked me the week before she died to see if I could get her back on the list for the rehab center. Arden had told her about her mother dying. She wanted to get better for Arden so she could be there for her when the time came.”
Doom was never good at comforting other men, yet he couldn’t stand there and not say anything.
“Lizzie might not be there when Arden loses her mom, but I was there and saw what was happening when you were fighting the other two. The punk hitting Lizzie thought she was dead and swung for Arden. Lizzie reached out and caught him by the foot, and he turned back to her. Lizzie protected Arden with her dying breath.”
“Hey,” Hawk broke the profound silence when he cracked the front door from the outside to poke his head in. “Does anyone know why a limo just parked in our parking lot?”