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)
She didn’t have just a candy bar. She had six. Two half gallons of ice cream—Rocky Road and vanilla. And a huge rainbow popsicle the size of a 6-cell Maglite.
And as we walked away, she was sure to glare at each of the adults that she passed. Grabbing onto my hand and holding on for dear life as we made it back to my truck.
Chapter 20
Like a good neighbor, stay over there.
-Kennedy’s secret thoughts
Kennedy
I rolled over in the bed, stared at the dented pillow, and frowned.
What had woken me up? Was it Evander leaving? Was he coming back? He said he was going to stay…
I threw the covers off, knowing that my mind wouldn’t shut off until I knew for certain if he was in the house, and started out the door of my bedroom—without, might I add, putting on pants.
Which was my first mistake.
My second mistake was assuming that Evander was the only one in my house.
I heard murmuring from somewhere in the living room/kitchen area and assumed that either he’d gotten a call or he’d needed to make a call.
My guess was he’d gotten a call.
He got calls a lot.
I was surprised to know how many people had Evander’s number.
At first, it was only the guys from work calling him, or the dispatcher calling with a pick-up for him to do.
Then, Evander explained, as his feelers started coming back and word got out that he was back, the low-life citizens of Hostel had started to call to give him tips. I wasn’t quite sure why he was gathering the little snippets of information or what he was going to use it all for until he’d explained it to me.
Now that everyone in town knew he was back in the area, all the people who used to act as his informants—telling him, for a fee, where he could find the people he was looking for and when—were calling with leads, hoping to restart their previous relationships. He needed these people who knew things that Evander couldn’t find out on his own without immersing himself in that world. A world, he’d explained, he didn’t want any part of if it meant that his parole could be broken and he’d be sent back to jail.
My third mistake of the night was walking right into the living room without pausing to first make sure that the front freakin’ door wasn’t open.
At first, they didn’t notice me.
At first, I didn’t think about the chill of the cool night air hitting my skin where they should have been covered by my pants.
Why?
Because there was a large man covered in head-to-toe black—black jeans, black motorcycle boots, black t-shirt, and a black ball cap covering his black hair—and he was arguing with Evander.
“I can’t do this for you,” the man stated vehemently.
“You mean, you won’t do it for me,” Evander countered the man’s obviously emotional refusal.
The man shrugged.
“I won’t do this for you,” he amended. “But it’s not because I’m not willing to help. It’s because I don’t want to see you go back to jail all for some petty revenge that won’t serve any real purpose and will barely get the man at the top of the food chain a fucking slap on the wrist.”
Evander’s back straightened. “You don’t know that.”
The man nodded his head. “I do. It may not happen the way I think it will, but it definitely isn’t going to go the way you think it will, either.”
Evander growled and started to pace from side-to-side in the small entranceway.
“He stole four years of my life, Rafe.”
The anger and hurt in those words were enough to make my belly clinch.
“I know, man,” Rafe said. “But he’s going to steal more if you don’t watch what the fuck you’re doing.”
Fear started to curl into my belly.
What could he be doing that would have this man—an obviously badass, all-black-wearing kind of guy—telling him that what he had planned wasn’t smart? Evander wasn’t a dumb man, not at all. Everything he did was intentional. He was the type of man who stopped to think first—and did so carefully—before he acted.
He weighed the pros and cons of his actions, considering every possible outcome and scenario, before he did anything.
Acting impulsively wasn’t in Evander’s nature, and if this man, Rafe, was thinking he was being impulsive, he was wrong. Whatever he had planned, it had been thought out thoroughly.
Whatever it was, though, it was obviously something bad.
I bit my lip and shifted my hip so I could get a better look, which caused the man in the door to look up and stare at me.
“She’s up.”
Evander stopped pacing and turned to look at me, eyes wide and wild.
“Jesus fucking Christ, Kennedy,” he growled low in his throat and started to stalk toward me. “You’re not wearing any goddamn clothes!”