Total pages in book: 41
Estimated words: 38483 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 192(@200wpm)___ 154(@250wpm)___ 128(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 38483 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 192(@200wpm)___ 154(@250wpm)___ 128(@300wpm)
“As long as you understand Aubrey is never coming back and doesn’t exist as far as anybody in Vegas is concerned, I’ll be more than willing to work with you.”
I’m irritated the bastard still seems to think he has a say in what Aubrey does. “Considering I have no intention of letting her leave my side and I want her safe, that works for me.”
“I’m gonna need to hear that from my sister before we talk any further,” he growls.
“You want to talk to your sister.” Aubrey’s eyes go wide, and she shakes her head. “You’re gonna have to give me a second to talk to her. She’s not exactly a fan of yours right now, and I can’t say I blame her.”
“Let me talk to my sister,” he barks.
My hand tightens around the phone. “Let me make one thing clear. She and her daughter are mine to take care of and protect, so if she doesn’t want to speak to you, I’m not going to force her.”
“Motherfucker, put—”
I don’t hear more, because she grabs the phone out of my hand and hisses, “I’m fine. Your niece is fine. And if you fuck over Justin, I’ll track you down and castrate you.” She shoves the phone back at me then disappears down the hall.
“I need to make a few phone calls, but I’ll be in touch,” I say when I put the phone back to my ear.
“Is she really okay? Is my niece all right?”
“They are both fine. We’ll talk soon.” I hang up when Aubrey comes back down the hall carrying Jenna.
“It sounds like you plan on helping my brother with something.”
“Yeah,” I agree, not wanting her to know too much.
She chews the inside of her cheek, looking away as she takes a seat on the couch. “Can you make me a promise?”
“It depends.” I won’t promise her that I’m not going to do whatever I need to do to make sure she and Jenna are protected, and unfortunately, some of the things I might need to do probably won’t make her happy.
“Just promise me that no matter what my brother pulls you into, you’ll always be the kind of man Jenna can look up to. That you won’t stop being the man I’m falling in love with.”
“The only thing that will change is my ability to sleep without worrying something could harm either of my girls,” I tell her, and she studies me for a long moment before nodding.
Chapter 13
AUBREY
“YOUR TURN,” I urge, rolling over in the bed with the phone in my hand and Justin’s face on the screen.
“You’re going to make me give up all my secrets, aren’t you?”
“You’re the one who wanted to play this game,” I remind him.
“You’re a heartless little thing.” He flashes me a sexy grin. “I like it.”
“When it comes to you being a man of mystery? Yup!” I grin back at him. “But it’s only fair, since I lost any chance at being a woman of mystery when you came into the labor and delivery room with me after we’d only known each other a couple of weeks.”
“When you put it that way, you have an excellent point,” he grumbles. “You already know what I do for Kenton, but I have a group of online hackers and activists I lead separate from the work I do with him.”
“You mean like Anonymous?” I don’t know much—or anything really—about hacking, but pretty much everyone has heard about the infamous hacktivist group on the news.
“Generally speaking? Sure,” he admits reluctantly. “But our goals are very different. We help shut down terrorists and extremists by hacking their websites.”
My eyes widen in surprise, because it sounds like his group is into some serious stuff. “So do I need to worry about the FBI breaking down your door in the middle of the night because of whatever it is that you do with your hacker friends?”
“You don’t have anything to worry about. I’m more likely to work with the authorities than have them hunt me down.” He runs a hand over the beard he’s been growing out since I gave birth to Jenna. “Under the table, of course. The shit I do is in no way legal, but there are some people high up in the legal system who see the value in having someone who can go where they can’t.”
“Do you guys have a cool name? Because I’ll be even more impressed if you do.”
His grin turns sheepish. “Yeah, we’re called the Winds of the North.”
“I love it.”
“All right, baby, time for you to go to sleep.” He smiles, and I touch the screen of my phone with one finger.
“I miss you.”
“I miss you too, but I’ll be home tomorrow morning.”
“Good.” I sigh then sit up when Jenna starts to cry. “I need to feed her.”