Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 98264 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 491(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98264 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 491(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
“I’m the guy saving your ass from a murder charge.” He jerked his chin. “I’m Aiden Johnson. Leo sent me.”
I had a dozen questions, but all of them could wait.
“Nora!” I shouted, sprinting past him.
I couldn’t have been more than a few yards away, but it felt like it took an eternity to reach her. My heart pounded, and every inhale felt like jagged razors in my lungs. Ramsey and Thea were crouched down around her, blocking my view, and I bulldozed through them.
“Move!” I roared.
I wouldn’t survive this.
I wouldn’t survive losing her.
Not after I’d just gotten her back.
Ramsey moved out of my way, his face pale, his phone already to his ear. “We need an ambulance. I think she’s okay, but I don’t know for sure.”
Dropping to my knees, I began frantically searching her body, patting down everywhere I could reach. “Where do you hurt? Are you bleeding? Talk to me.”
“I…um. I don’t think he hit me.”
“Are you sure?” I continued with the pat-down, inspecting her arms and legs for any sign of trauma.
Her trembling hand came up to cup my jaw, forcing my eyes back to hers. “What the hell just happened? Are you okay?”
No. It was safe to say I would never be okay again after watching him pull the trigger, knowing she was on the other end. But as long as she was safe and at my side, I would find a way to breathe again.
“Come here,” I forced out around a lump of emotion lodged in my throat, falling back on my ass as the adrenaline began to ebb from my system.
Sirens screamed in the distance as she wasted no time crawling into my lap and burying her face in my neck. “Oh, God, Cam.”
“I’m right here,” I murmured, smoothing her hair down. “Just breathe.”
Motion over my shoulder caught my attention and I swiveled around to find at least a dozen men covering the lawn. All of them in suits, not a single Clovert police uniform in the bunch. A few of them were surrounding Jonathan, who was now cuffed but still lying facedown.
“Sir, are you injured?” a woman asked.
“No,” I breathed, my head swirling as I tried to figure out what the hell was going on. The ambulance wasn’t even there yet, but there was somehow a row of unmarked cars lining the street.
“What about you, ma’am?”
Dazed, Nora shook her head. “I’m fine.”
“Okay, well, hang tight. We have medical on the way, just in case.”
Ramsey was off to the side, talking to a man I didn’t recognize. He was still visibly shaken but comfortable with the conversation, Thea tucked under his arm.
Aiden Johnson caught my eye and left his conversation with yet another suit to head my way. “He hit the window,” he said when he got close, pointing at Nora’s house. “You’ll need to get that fixed tonight.”
“I don’t give a fuck about a window. What the hell happened here?” Nora moved off my lap and we stood up together. She instantly wrapped herself around my side.
Aiden’s eyes dropped to her. “You good, babe? Luckily, he was too freaked to have had any aim, but you took a nasty spill on the sidewalk.” He grinned, and up until that point, I’d doubted he possessed the facial muscles to pull off such a gentle feat.
Leo had been smart when he’d hired this guy; Aiden Johnson was intimidating as hell.
“I’m okay,” she whispered, shifting impossibly closer.
I gave her a reassuring squeeze. “Who the hell are all these people?”
His dark eyes came back to me. “Oh, right. First off, we figured out who was tailing your cousin. It took a little while because the feds aren’t usually real excited to discuss an open investigation, but Leo called in some favors.”
“What?” I snapped, Nora parroting the same sentiment beside me.
“And they weren’t even the only ones.” He crossed his arms over his barrel chest. “Seems your boy owed some bad fucking people a lot of cash. When he didn’t have it, he made a deal to oversee a handoff of some product, which eventually turned into him escorting drugs through the county on their way to Atlanta and down to Florida. Problem was, feds caught word and started digging. This set off all kind of alarms for the cartel and they came to the conclusion that Caskey had flipped and was setting them up with the authorities. Based on the timing of your return to Clovert, Caskey’s dumb ass thought this was all somehow your fault, even though he had one foot in the grave long before he arrested your girl here.” He shrugged. “I’m guessing he was never the brains in the family.”
I blinked, trying to process all the flaming shit he had just thrown into the already raging Caskey dumpster fire. Some of it made sense. Some of it was unbelievable. Some of it made my fists ache for another piece of him.