Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 72325 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72325 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
The bathroom was tiny, but Maggie didn’t take up much room. The bartender couldn’t have been more than 5’5”, and I could see the top of her glossy black hair as she adjusted the water temperature at the sink.
My hands stung as I washed them, but it felt good to get the blood off. Maggie picked up a hand towel and wet it, using it to clean spots on my arm. Her body was warm, and I got a whiff of some kind of floral scent. It smelled good.
“What happened out there?” she asked quietly, causing me to do some quick thinking.
“There was some kind of blast,” I said. “We were caught in it.” Involuntarily, the image of the man I’d seen in the van behind me flashed across my mind. Sean Baxter, that cowardly motherfucker.
He’d pay.
Maggie was studying my face, and I wondered if my expression had shown my thoughts. She bit her lip, as if biting back questions she wanted to ask. She wasn’t part of the dark world the three of us inhabited, but she was from the neighborhood and knew better than to ask too many questions.
She was silent as she helped me, fishing a few small shards out of my skin. Her touch was light, only occasionally making me wince. And I nearly smiled as I heard three voices drift toward us from the kitchen. Rocco’s sounded stronger than before.
The last thing I wanted to do was to cause trouble for Maggie and her nurse friend, but at the moment, I felt nothing but gratitude for the pretty young woman next to me. She had a level head and a gentle touch. Hopefully the nurse who was helping Rocco did as well.
4
MAGGIE
North Haven was the last place I expected to run into Rock DeLuca, Julian Knight, and Slater Winslow. Then again, it was the last place I’d expect to hear the sound of an explosion, yet that had happened.
The teapot Piper had put on the stove had rattled a half-second before we heard the noise of the blast. For a few moments, Piper and I had stared at each other in shock. Though the small house was in the poorer section of town, this was a quiet, sleepy community that was nothing like where I lived and worked in Brooklyn.
Julian’s tall form looked out of place here, especially in the hall bathroom. The pastel wallpaper and pink sink didn’t at all fit the profile of the owner of the house, my friend, Zoey. She’d recently inherited it from her great aunt and had been gone so much that she hadn’t had any time to redecorate.
When Piper and I said we’d come house-sit this weekend, we hadn’t known we’d be walking into a shrine of the fifties. But we fit in here amongst the fussy floral patterns better than Julian.
His dark eyes flashed as he examined himself in the mirror. There was a cut on his forehead, but it didn’t look very bad. I made a mental note to get Piper to look at it, however.
Something in his short beard caught the light, and I reached up, dabbing with my towel until a small sliver of glass fell into the sink. “That stuff really went everywhere,” I said.
“That stuff used to be the rear window of my car.” He sounded pissed. When he and his buddies came into the Rusty Bucket, he always seemed like the level-headed one. He never drank too much. He never raised his voice. Then again, all three of them kind of kept to themselves. They only spoke to each other, and were polite but not overly friendly when I served them drinks. They just came in, ordered, paid, and left. I’d hardly ever get anything more out of them than “hey,” “evening” and “goodnight.”
“Sorry about your car,” I said.
He sighed. “It definitely could’ve been worse.”
“What—” I bit back the question I’d been wanting to ask since the three of them got here. I’d learned early on at the bar that there were some things you didn’t ask about.
“I’d like to know what happened, too.” Though his voice was steady, there was a look in his eyes that made me take a step back.
He caught my movement and his expression softened. “Sorry, Maggie. You’re about the last person I should be bitching at right now.”
I gave a short laugh. “Who’s the first?”
“Long story.” He heaved a deep, long sigh. “Maybe I should go tell Slater to leave her alone to do her job.”
“If necessary, she’ll do it herself,” I told him, and it was true. Piper was a quiet introvert at heart, but when there was a medical emergency, she turned into a different person. A very competent, focused person.
“Piper’s pretty experienced. She’s my best friend.” I wasn’t sure why I added that, but it was true. She, Zoey, and I were close. As close as these guys seemed to be. “You and your buddies… you seem pretty tight.”