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)
“Yo!” Gabe yelled out. “We have shit to do today, Uniball! Let’s get a move on!”
I growled.
Janie frowned.
And then I went into a meeting and told them what had occurred.
All the while I tried not to keep my eyes trained on the one thing in the room that was vying for my attention.
“You’re telling me this motherfucker repossessed her car,” Sam leaned forward in his seat.
“Shit.” Janie hissed. “We discussed that we were going to pay off those car payments, but it never happened. Goddammit.”
“Janie…”
Janie rolled her eyes at her father’s quiet admonishment.
“Dad.”
I would’ve snorted, but it would’ve brought attention to me, and I liked watching Janie without the men in the room being aware of my obsession.
“Tell us the rest,” Sam muttered.
“Little Harold has his fat fingers in the cookie jar, and up his own ass. Skimming from the top, and from the bottom,” I continued. “Impounds their cars, loses payments. Then he collects the late fees and keeps the cycle on repeat. Your newest bird down there got herself turned around but was so scared to say something and ruin what she had, that she took it for way too long.”
There’d been another ‘bird’ there before this one, and she left rather abruptly. We’d received some independent reports that we had a problem down there. Not knowing what the exact problem was with Lark, one of their girls that was just relocated down there and not wanting to send another ‘bird’ to that area without knowing what that problem may be, he’d hired me. Reluctantly, but he’d hired me.
And, since it worked with everything else I already had going on down there, I agreed to take the job.
What I didn’t expect was what I actually found, which I relayed to them.
“The bird has protection, though,” I admitted. “She found a man there who will protect her—is already very protective of her—but Harold still needs to go.”
Sam pinched the bridge of his nose. “I need another point of contact there then,” he admitted. “Once we see if it’s still safe, we’ll find someone new as a point of contact down there.”
“I have a suggestion,” I started.
“Oh, this should be good, Uniball,” Max muttered.
“It will be,” Gabe snorted.
I sighed, then stood up.
“If y’all are done, I’m ready to go,” I said. “I had to take time off to do this, and I don’t have time to play y’all’s stupid games today.”
“Temper, temper,” Jack muttered. “Tell us who you think will be good.”
I started heading toward the door.
“The bird’s new man.”
Then I walked out without another word.
Or tried to, anyway.
I made it about halfway down the driveway before my name was called, and I was stopped by a hesitant voice that made my heart race.
“Rafe?”
I put one foot in front of the other again.
Bad.
Bad, bad, bad.
Don’t do it, Rafe.
Don’t do it, Rafe.
I lectured myself for the two minutes it took me to make my way down the driveway and hit the ‘exit’ button.
I slipped through the barely cracked open gate and then felt her hand on my shoulder.
I halted beside my bike and turned, trying not to betray the way she made me feel by being this close to me.
“Yeah?”
My voice didn’t just fucking squeak, did it?
She’d been absolutely killing me during that meeting, and it’d taken everything I had in me not to betray the way I felt. The way I wanted to throw her onto any available surface and suck her fucking soul straight out of her pussy with my mouth.
“I’m sorry that my father and uncles say the stuff they say to you,” she apologized. “Swear to God, they have more manners than that. I hope they didn’t hurt your feelings.”
I snorted. If I pussied out every single time someone called me a bad name, I’d be dead and gone a long fucking time ago.
“Your father can’t hurt my feelings,” I said. “Everything he’s had to say so far isn’t anything I haven’t heard before.”
Janie’s eyes narrowed. “You hear this all the time?”
I laughed at that. “Honey, I’m the son of a man who screwed over military families, took their life savings, and left them desolate. I’m known far and wide. I might not have been the man behind the schemes, but I was the boy who was benefiting from their money. Military men have long memories, so believe me when I say, anything your family says to me, I’ve heard worse.”
She frowned. “Rafe, just because you’re used to it, doesn’t make what they’re saying to you all right. You should say something.”
“I’m not going to say anything,” I laughed.
Janie narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips, and I couldn’t help but to allow my eyes to go to her mouth. That succulent, beautiful mouth with her pretty, puffy lips.
They were shining today with a sheen of lip gloss, and my hand twitched. It ached to wrap around her wrist, yank her to me, and lick those lips until they didn’t shine anymore.