Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 68146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
It was as I was coming out that I met Keene coming in.
“Up early,” he mused as he shouldered past me and headed for a stall.
“Up at a normal time,” I pointed out.
He grinned and reached for his toothbrush.
I reached for mine as he said, “We run on circus time around here. Stay up late, go to bed early. Get up whenever.”
“Is that how it goes?” I asked before shoving my toothbrush into my mouth.
We both brushed our teeth and only when he was done did he reply with, “Yep. You’ll learn that eventually.”
I would.
“Yeah,” I confirmed.
Because I would.
Yesterday, during our impromptu day with my friends, I’d realized a few things. One, I was incredibly in love with her, to the point that I was almost giddy that my friends had popped up when they did so they could meet her.
Two, if she got along so well with my friends, then she would slot right into my life perfectly.
Not only had she invited them out to the circus, but she hadn’t blinked an eye at the thought of sitting at a table with nine men. Nor had she cared when I’d left her behind with them.
Keene waited until I was done brushing before raising his brows at me and saying, “I feel like we need to sit down and talk. Figure out what your game plan is. And if it’s to stay, I need to get a contract out of you.”
Smart man, smart decision.
“Contract?” I asked. “Isn’t having a kid with your sister reason enough to be around without a contract?”
He shrugged. “Probably. If I trusted you completely like I do my family. That will come with time. In the meantime, we can get you a contract that says you won’t leave for a year, and I’ll give you free rein to pretty much do whatever the fuck you want.”
“Your sister already gave me permission to do that,” I indicated.
“My sister can be overruled if we want to overrule her,” he pointed out. “There’s nothing against you as a person, man. I got this gut feeling you’ll be around forever. But right now, I have to protect the circus. We have to get you on our insurance. We also have to offer you a job and pay you. And with that comes 401(k) compensation, as well as employee benefits. By law, I have to do this all official like, otherwise the government likes to fuck with us.”
I offered him my hand and said, “One day, I’m going to marry your sister.”
“One day, she’ll let you,” he said as he took my hand and shook it.
We both dropped our hands as he got serious for a moment. “You know our hacker friend?”
I blinked. “Yes.”
“She did a background check on you,” he explained.
I felt my heart rate pick up.
Supposedly, those files were secret. Hidden from any and all who tried to look.
But…
“Okay,” I said, feeling my stomach drop.
“She knows just enough to know you’re dangerous but not anything else,” Keene explained. “When she went to you that night, Val tried to spring it on her. Just assume that everything is known, all the way down to your shoe size and whether or not you made As in kindergarten. We know what you did for a living. We know what you didn’t. We know everything there is to know because Folsom is that good of a hacker. Nothing is hidden from her if she wants to find it. And she found everything.”
I felt my anger rising.
“But Simi didn’t want to know. She knows absolutely nothing other than we had a file on you, and at one point in time, you were something more for the government,” he explained. “And I’m only telling you this because one day it might come out that we had that information, and I don’t want you taking it out on her. Hell, at this point, I don’t even know if she remembers that we had it, so she couldn’t tell you.”
“Can I see the file?” I asked.
“You could, yes. But I burned it two months ago so my sisters couldn’t all read your life’s story,” he explained. “Also, I think you should tell her everything. Not now. When you’re comfortable. Bet she’ll surprise you.”
I had a feeling that she would.
After we parted ways, I headed back to the food trailer and put the finishing touches on my marinade.
I was making fajitas tonight for dinner, and the longer the meat sat in the marinade, the better.
“Oh, hey.” I looked up to find Hades, the quietest of the sisters, standing in the doorway of the trailer. “I’m here for some tampons.”
She looked frazzled, as if she’d just woken up and hadn’t gotten enough sleep.
“You okay?” I asked her.
She frowned, consternation filling her face. “I…”
That’s when Kristoff arrived, carrying his screaming daughter on his hip. “Yo, you got anything in there that I could feed to this kid? I’ve tried everything in the damn trailer, but the kid can’t seem to find something she wants. And she’s in the worst fuckin’ mood, and I don’t know how to do this.”