Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 77170 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77170 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
A couple of guys at a table nearby help him up. “You okay, buddy?” one of them asks.
“Hell no,” Lamone says. “I’m not sure I’ve ever been okay.”
I shake my head, clearing away his empty glass. He stumbles out the door just as Donny Steel and Callie Pike walk in and take a seat at the bar.
“Pat Lamone looks in a bad way.” Callie rolls her eyes. “Not that I give a damn.”
“The man’s a derelict,” Donny agrees.
I simply nod. After what he did to Callie, the two of them will never see part of Lamone deserves sympathy.
“What can I get you two?”
“Just Diet Coke for me,” Callie says.
“Margarita,” Donny says.
I hold back my chuckle. It cracks me up that one of the big and burly Steel men likes sweet drinks.
“Frozen or on the rocks?”
“On the rocks.”
“What was Lamone doing in here anyway?” Callie asks.
“He’s got some troubles.”
“Good,” she says.
“We were just talking to Ava,” Donny says. “She was asking us about the future lawmakers club over at Snow Creek High School.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. We’re going to look into it. Apparently, back in the day—I’m talking Brad Steel’s day—they were a pretty bad organization.”
“So I’ve heard.”
“How much do you know?” Donny asks me.
“Not a lot, mostly because Ava doesn’t know a lot. At least not yet. Ava and I don’t have secrets…unless someone else asked her to keep a secret, in which case I respect that.”
“Tell you what,” Donny says. “Why don’t you and I look into this? It would mean a lot to Ava.”
I slide Callie’s Diet Coke in front of her. “I’ll do anything for Ava. You can take that to the bank.”
Chapter Two
Ava
“I want to spend the night here,” I say to my mother.
Donny and Callie have been gone for an hour, and Mom and I have been talking. Dad went to bed. He’s still exhausted from his episode at the party.
“Don’t you have to open the bakery early?” Mom asks.
“Yeah…but I can get up early.”
“I wish you’d get someone to help you. You shouldn’t have to be there so early every single day.”
“We’ve been through this, Mom.”
Mom rubs her temples. “I know we have. But even if you won’t accept any monetary help, can you have Luke or Maya open up for you sometimes? Why do you always have to be the one to get up early and get everything started?”
“Because it’s my business, Mom. It’s my bakery. I’m the baker. I have to make all the bread.”
“You could teach them—”
I shake my head. “I can’t. My baking is a source of pride for me. When people walk into that bakery, they’re looking for Ava Steel’s bread. Not Maya’s bread. Not Luke’s bread. My bread, Mom. It’s important.”
“I know.” She sighs. “It’s just that you’ve been through so much.”
Mom doesn’t know I had a panic attack of my own after Dad had his. I’m not about to tell her. I’m not sure how I let myself go there. I usually have more control over my body than that. I won’t have another attack. No matter what happens. I just won’t.
Still…there are times when I wish I could stay at home. Let my mother take care of me. But I chose my own business. I chose to put my whole self into my baking, and I don’t regret that choice.
I let out a yawn.
“See?” Mom pounces. “If you insist on being the one to open the bakery at the asscrack of dawn every day, you need your sleep. You should get home.”
She’s right. I am completely exhausted, both physically and emotionally. It’s better to get home now and get a good night’s sleep in my own bed at my own place. Before I go, though—
“Dad mentioned a ring,” I say. “A ring that the future lawmakers wore.”
“Yes. Both your grandfathers had one.”
“Who has them?”
She pauses a moment. Then, “Actually…I have one of them—Brad Steel’s.”
“You?” I lift my brow. “How do you have it? And why wouldn’t you have your own father’s ring?”
“I don’t know what happened to my father’s. He stopped wearing it at the end of his life, and we never found it. Brad Steel’s ring was left for me once, as a clue. Your father found it in my couch in my old apartment before we were married. We never found out who planted it there, but it led him and Uncle Talon to me.”
“Wait…” I blink, trying to make sense of what my mother just said. “What?”
“Ava, there’s so much more to the story. About how your father and Uncle Talon took down the trafficking ring, or so they thought. About how we found out Brad Steel was alive—the first time. And about how Dale and Donny came to our family.”
“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me more.”
She sighs and looks at her watch. Why is she so concerned about the time? “All right. You may as well know. My father had me drugged and abducted.”