Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 114819 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 574(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114819 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 574(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
“Prove it,” Dev teased with a challenging arch of the brow. “Kiss me good morning.”
“Oh my God. Y’all are like a really dysfunctional rom-com,” Joe muttered. Cash didn’t hesitate to lean in and kiss Dev’s puckered lips like he did every morning.
His heart proclaimed they were like a sexy, number one box office opening weekend rom-com.
“Did you talk to Lily?” Shanna asked, interrupting his moment of mental devotion.
In the middle of descending for the kiss, Cash left Dev hanging, turning Shanna’s way. Instead of a practiced pop shot falling out of his mouth, he stuck his middle finger in her face as Cash turned away.
Business before pleasure… He’d regret the missed lip play they usually shared in the morning.
“I did speak to Lily. We’re business as usual until I hear different. Yesterday was an…unfortunate blip in the road.” Cash glanced between the brother and sister pair. “I say it like that because neither one of you seems too broken up over what happened.”
“Oh hell no. Bitch needed to die,” Dev barked and threw his hands in the air to drive the point home. Shanna had better impulse control and kept her lips zipped, giving a nod that Dev took as a second to his words.
Cash, though, continued to tread carefully, watching his words, taking a physical step back. Dev didn’t expect anything less, his guy was a gentleman that way.
“All right, we still have a theft that’s unaccounted for. We need to find where the money has gone. After church this morning, I’ll head to the bike shop and scour through the place. Of course, it’s still closed until after the investigation comes to an end.” Cash took another step away from Dev to turn more fully to the entire group. “I’d like Shanna to accompany me to the bike shop then to your father’s home. I realize it may be tough for you…”
“I’ll go,” she shot out, cutting Cash off. Her arms crossed over her chest. Dev decided a while ago that her pose must be the standard good-guy stance because all three of them now stood that way. “We’ll do it together. It wouldn’t be safe if any of the brothers caught you there alone. I promise the club’s watching the shop and most likely my father’s house too.”
“Then I’ll go too,” Dev shot out. Shanna wouldn’t be enough to keep the suspicion off Cash. “They won’t fuck with me.”
Except that meant everything he planned to do today got pushed back a day…
“Dad, Mom’s on the phone,” Abi said, drawing all the attention down to her as she came through the still open front door. She was dressed with her hand sticking out as if the cell phone was the most offensive object she’d ever had to hold.
“I wanna talk to her,” Mae said, rubbing her eyes, following behind Abi. She was also dressed, but her hair hung down her back in a tangled mess. Damn. He’d forgotten the braid last night. She’d cry through the brushing out later.
“No, you don’t,” Abi said. “Nobody wants to talk to her.” She spoke loudly, drawing the phone back to her mouth to make sure her mother heard. When Dev took the phone, Abi put her finger over her lips, getting right in Mae’s face, urging her to be quiet. She whispered, “Mom needs to know you can’t just run off and everything’ll be fine. We matter and she needs to treat us better. We’re supposed to stick together because we’re a family.”
Mae looked ready to protest until the expression on her face became a study of Abi’s words, then nodded. “I’m hungry.”
Shanna jumped into action. “Come on, you two. We’ll go get donuts and then maybe swing by the grocery store, okay? Unless you like apples for dinner. Your dad has a lot of those.”
“Apples are good,” Abi said, scrunching her face as she looked over her shoulder to Cash. He winked at her proper summarization. Those apples were far too healthy for Dev to have stocked in his home.
“Are you gonna get Puppy this morning?” Mae asked. “She’ll be scared being there by herself.”
“I thought the puppy was a boy?” Shanna asked, ushering them out of the apartment.
“We thought she was a boy too but then she turned into a girl,” Mae answered.
“I’ll go get her right after breakfast.”
Dev waited until he heard his apartment door shut then brought the phone to his ear. No doubt, his and Tena’s exchanges always got loud. “What the fuck could you possibly want from me?” Dev asked by way of a greeting.
“What the fuck was I served with you pansy-ass?” she shouted right back.
She’d finally lost her mind. Did she think he could teleport there to see what she held in her hands. How did he know what she was served?
“You tell me,” he shot back after a fraction of a second.