Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 80176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
“Ahhh,” she nodded in understanding. “Got it.”
I winked at her.
“Who is this Brock guy?” I asked Lincoln. “I saw someone at the diner the other day. He ordered a beer with his breakfast, and I think he was the only other person in the entire place who could take some of the heat off of me the entire time I was there.”
Baylor nodded. “Was with me in the SEALs. Something happened. Something bad. He was looking for somewhere to go and I offered him up Hostel. He’s staying in an apartment in Jefferson, though. The rent’s cheaper there.”
“All right, then ask those two. We will see how the workload lightens up and go from there,” Travis scratched his head. “Did we go over the numbers for last month?”
“No,” all of us said.
The numbers from last month were pretty much made up from what we pulled in with repossessions. Usually, there was a running count to see who could get the biggest payout, but I guessed that it’d taken a back burner when Dante’s family had been killed.
And my guess was confirmed moments later when Baylor spoke.
“No point,” Baylor sighed, his head tilting forward as he stretched out his neck. “I’m exhausted, and the faster I can get home, the faster I can get to fuckin’ sleep.”
Before Travis could reply to this, his phone rang, and he halted everything to answer it.
I understood why he’d done that moments later when he stood up like he had somewhere to be.
Which, I might add, he sure as hell did.
“Hannah’s in labor. Gotta go.” He paused at the door and looked at Baylor. “Assign that to whomever wants it and get to the hospital.”
Baylor had already been halfway to standing when he got the directive.
“10-4,” Baylor grumbled. “I’ll be there. Good luck, brother.”
Travis visibly shook himself and then he was gone.
“This his first kid?” Kennedy asked in surprise.
“No,” everyone around the table answered at once.
The single word was said so abruptly, and with so much anger, that Kennedy shrank back in surprise.
“I think I sense a story,” she murmured, this time for only me to hear. “But tell me later.”
Baylor grunted, and Kennedy’s faced flushed with the realization that she hadn’t whispered quite as low as she thought she had.
“There really is nobody to give this to but you, man,” Baylor handed off the file folder by sliding it across the table. “We gotta get to the hospital…just be smart, yeah?”
I lifted my lip in a silent snarl.
“I’ll be smart,” I lied.
I wouldn’t be smart.
This was the ticket that I’d been waiting for. The entrance to the private Montes compound that had security that rivaled Fort Knox. The place that housed one of the two men who’d been responsible for leaving me to rot in that shit hole for four years.
Yeah, I wasn’t going to be smart. I was going to kill that motherfucker with my goddamn bare hands.
And I had a good damn reason to be there.
Fuck. Yeah.
With the rest of the group leaving, it left Kennedy staring at me in anticipation.
“I have so many questions!”
I started to laugh as I pulled her up from her chair.
Once we got outside, I opened the truck door, but she waved it away.
“No, let’s go over there and get some candy.”
“Candy?”
“Candy!” She said, then started across the street to the gas station.
I followed behind her, eyes on her ass, and almost missed the woman who pushed out of the gas station at the same time Kennedy pushed in.
“I’m sorry.” Kennedy apologized.
I looked up at the same time that I saw the vet staring at me accusingly.
“Dog stealer.”
I gritted my teeth.
“What are you talking about?” Kennedy questioned Layne.
Layne turned her angry gaze to Kennedy.
“He didn’t tell you that he stole my dog?”
Kennedy’s eyes turned understanding.
“From what I hear, he didn’t steal the dog. You were housing the dog, and he had a signed contract.” Kennedy corrected her.
Layne didn’t have anything to say to that. She flipped us both off and left, walking out of the gas station parking lot and next door to her clinic.
But she’d done the damage that she’d set out to accomplish. How, you ask? The town gossips had been standing in the middle of the parking lot next to a large Suburban. Three women, six kids, and two fathers that also helped coach the team that my nephew was on. All of the adults were staring at us with various degrees of disgust on their face.
Just fucking perfect.
“Let’s go.” I ordered, grabbing Kennedy’s hand.
She tugged it away from me and went into the store. I stayed where I was, torn between following her and standing my ground.
I decided to stay and stare the group down, but two of the women were already on their phones, texting.
Just fucking great.
“Ready.”
I looked down at the bag that Kennedy was holding.