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)
And so, my dad had ignored the howls from the laundry room—or tried to anyway. When he’d gotten up the next morning, it was to find his entire room trashed. The drywall had been gouged. The hoses and cords from the washer and dryer were torn to pieces, and baskets of clothes shredded.
Yeah, it hadn’t been good.
And now he refused to watch them.
Hence the reason I was asking my best friend to do it.
“I’m watching them at your house,” Kayla said. “They’re not coming to mine.”
I snorted. “That’s fine.”
It wasn’t like Kayla didn’t live at my house half the time anyway.
We were best friends. Either she was at my place, or I was at hers.
Though, we were literally right next to each other.
Kayla’s father, Dougie, had been a part of my father’s unit when they were in the Army. He’d died while overseas when Kayla was a young child, and ever since, she’d been a pseudo-family member. My sister, though not by blood.
“Fine.” She sighed. “But I’m only doing it until Monday. I have to be at an orientation in Benton, Louisiana on Tuesday. I want to leave on Monday so I’m not late for work on Tuesday.”
I rolled my eyes.
Kayla was shadowing an officer named Bryce Rector, better known as Loki. He was a member of my grandfather’s MC, and my grandfather had also been paramount in setting up this shadowing with the officer in the first place.
For some reason, Kayla wanted to be a police officer. However, Kayla also wanted to be a school teacher. Oh, and a doctor.
She was two years into the first two degrees and still wasn’t sure what path she was taking.
Papa Silas had asked Loki if he’d be willing to let Kayla follow him around for a week or two so she could see what the job entailed. Loki had agreed, and now Kayla was going to be gone for two weeks while she learned the ins and outs of being a police officer.
Though my father had told her she could follow him around, we all knew that wasn’t going to work. That would be because my father was just as protective of Kayla as he was about me. Meaning my father wouldn’t let her really dig her heels in and see what it actually took to be a police officer.
Which was where my grandfather came in.
Silas was going to be watching over her, but Kayla would also get the real experience that she wouldn’t be able to get here thanks to my father.
“I’ll be back. Promise!” I held up my pinky finger.
Kayla sighed, took my finger in hers, and then we shook on it.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” Kayla drawled.
“Me?” I squeaked, batting my eyelashes. “Never!”
Chapter 5
I don’t know why people complain about my appearance. My attitude is a lot worse.
-Rafe to Janie
Rafe
The last thing on my mind when I got home was entertaining.
However, when I pulled up in my driveway, drenched from head to toe in my own sweat, I found that my driveway wasn’t empty like it usually was.
It was filled with cars.
Well, two of them, anyway.
I pulled my bike up to the carport door and shut it off before swinging my foot over the side of it.
The moment I was standing, I turned to find Elspeth, Layton Trammel’s daughter, standing there with a warm, welcoming smile.
My stomach knotted.
“Hey,” I said, sounding welcoming when I felt anything but. “What’s going on? Why are you here?”
Why are you here?
I snorted.
I knew why she was here.
Last night I’d ‘accidentally’ bumped into her at the bar in town, and I had mentioned moving out to the new place on Old Highway Five. Apparently, Elspeth hadn’t forgotten.
And now she was bringing me a pie.
How fucking sweet.
“I thought I’d welcome you to the neighborhood.” She smiled, holding out the pie.
I didn’t bother to tell her that I’d lived here for a while now. Three months, to be exact. I wasn’t exactly ‘new.’
However, I needed her—or, more accurately, the in with her father she could provide. I needed to be able to get closer to Layton to find out what he was doing and to do that, I was going to have to get closer to Elspeth.
I looked down at the pie Elspeth handed me and nearly grimaced.
Pecan pie.
I hated pecans.
My father used to have a bowl of them in his office, and I used to go steal them when he wasn’t around.
The pecan likely still tasted good to me, but the thought of fucking pecans, which reminded me of my father, just turned me off.
I’d never eat another one of them for the rest of my life—not without thinking of my father—and I tried to do that as little as possible.
“Thank you,” I grinned. “I really appreciate it.”
The door to my house opened, and my eyes flicked up to see Janie standing there.