Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 73043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
He put his fingers on the piano, and then he started to play.
The first notes of the song started, and I found myself smiling wide.
Sebastian threw his arm around my shoulder and pulled me into his big, warm body.
I laid my head against his chest and watched as my man taught a little girl how to play Great Balls of Fire on the piano. You know, if she could actually see it. His fingers were moving so fast that I wasn’t sure she was really even watching.
More like admiring.
Hell, we all were admiring.
“Where in the hell did that come from?” Torren, Ashe’s father, said as he watched his daughter admire the way Rafe was playing. “I need him to teach her every week. I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen her sit there without fidgeting in some way.”
“Or complaining,” Tru muttered from behind me. “God that girl. She was the one who wanted to play, too. It’s not like we forced her. We bought the piano…then she decided she’d rather play soccer instead.”
I shook my head.
“You can’t have him. We have him,” came my father’s reply.
I rolled my eyes again.
Were they seriously fighting over a man?
“I only need him once a week for about an hour and a half. That’s it.”
“You haven’t seen his computer skills, then.” Uncle Sam’s reply came from the back of the room. “Or the way he can find out information like Silas once did.”
Jesus, the entire hallway was filled with people!
“Like Silas still does, you mean,” Torren countered.
I rolled my eyes.
“Fifteen years of piano lessons,” Rafe said as he stood up and turned. “I sometimes play when I want to get rid of some of my frustration.”
I blinked.
“You never told me you could play the piano!”
I grinned at my sister Rebel’s outburst.
“He didn’t tell anyone, apparently,” I drawled.
Rafe rolled his eyes.
“Whatever.”
“Play something else,” I ordered.
“You’ll have to get a few beers in me, first,” he said. “Playing makes me think about old times, and old times aren’t always good times.”
I knew what he meant exactly.
And immediately grimaced at remembering just some of what he’d explained during the course of our relationship.
Chapter 21
I’m not always right, but you’re more not right. Like WAY more.
-Janie to Rafe
Rafe
“How are the dogs?” A man called out, changing the subject.
The man with the multicolor eyes.
He’d obviously read the tension in my shoulders and was offering a change of subject so this wouldn’t get any worse than it already was.
“They’re great, Trance.” Janie smiled. “Rafe’s been really awesome about helping train them. Not to mention it’s awesome since I don’t have to send them away for that to happen.”
Trance’s brows went up. “You train dogs?”
I nodded. “Yeah.” Then paused. “When I first started out as an independent contractor, I went in as a dog trainer. ‘Helping’ other military members learn how to work with their K-9 partners. To do that, I had to have a base knowledge of training, handling, things like that. I went through about six months of training with a certified trainer, and then went in and started with the military while simultaneously looking for a member of that team that was stealing the dogs and giving them to our enemies.”
Trance’s jaw tightened. “Please tell me you caught them.”
I nodded. “Sure did. Found out that he’d stolen four dogs like that, then handed them right on over.”
“And what happened to the dogs?” Janie asked.
I grinned at her and her soft heart.
“Three of the dogs wouldn’t perform for them since they didn’t know the commands. Those dogs were never recovered. Best guess, they killed them when they wouldn’t. But we have no solid evidence to say that they made it. However, one did survive, but only because she was being beaten and forced to perform. They’d learned by the fourth dog. They were able to get the dog back, but she wasn’t the same…they did, however, let the old handler take her home.”
“Who was the old handler?” Janie asked, excitement in her voice.
“You know him. Parker.”
The room went wired at the mention of that name, and it was all centered on the man that hadn’t said much to me since we’d arrived.
His name was Loki. I’d gotten that much out of him.
But not much more.
“Is she okay now? Does she function well with the handler?” Trance asked, ignoring the obvious tension in his friend and fellow club member.
Trance’s curiosity about the dog was too much and overrode his friend’s obvious annoyance about something that I was missing.
“The dog is definitely different. More volatile. She doesn’t work well with other dogs, so any time that she goes out, he has to put a muzzle on her. Women are a no go for her, too. The main abuser must’ve been a woman because Carmen freaks out if a woman is anywhere near her. So, vet visits are not fun for her, but overall, she’s doing well. Watchful, always broody, but she loves Parker. Parker just won’t ever be able to date or bring a female home without Carmen going all Cujo on her.”