Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 75754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
And still was.
Ruby Shaw was a good woman, though, and she deserved to have that man.
We were now really good friends, and had been one of the few people to stand by my side, along with Lily, when I killed my husband.
I shut off those thoughts before they got any darker.
Especially since when I looked up from my plate I could see both Loki and Sterling studying me.
“What?” I asked, directing my question at Sterling.
“I asked you what was happening with your neighbors,” Loki said.
I winced.
Not only because I was ignoring Loki, either.
“Uhh,” I said. “Just general problems at first. They left me notes telling me that my car was in their way and that I should park it in the driveway because it was hard to get out of their own driveway.”
My driveway was full of cars that belong to the couple I’m renting from.
That’d been a stipulation of renting the house from them.
At the time, it hadn’t been a big deal to me. I hadn’t even had a car.
But as time had gone by, and I’d gotten a car, it started to become a bit of a hassle.
Not because of the cars in the driveway, but because of the neighbors.
I wasn’t the only one who parked in the street.
Hell, the neighbor directly beside me had a fuckin’ boat in front of my house, yet I didn’t see any notes on that.
“The boat is moved,” Loki nodded. “That’s illegal to leave on the street. It’s considered a recreational vehicle. You can park that in your yard, though. It’s good he moved it or I’d have tagged it.”
I blinked.
He would have?
“Technically, it’s also illegal to park your car on the road over night, but it’s never enforced. Mostly because it’s something that everybody does. We’d have to give about half the city a ticket every night if that was the case,” Loki continued. “And normally we only give out tickets like that if the car’s impeding traffic. And I looked when I came in, you aren’t impeding traffic.”
I continued blinking.
Wow.
I didn’t expect him to side with me.
“Really?” I asked. “So what was with the ticket he got off my car this morning?”
“That’s my next step. But, technically, he could’ve felt your car was impeding traffic or something,” Loki shrugged. “It’s up to the discretion of the officer.”
Wonderful.
Yet another thing I had to pay.
I’d have to move.
I couldn’t keep living here.
Not with them calling the cops on me over something I couldn’t control.
Wonderful.
Just fucking wonderful.
Chapter 3
Beards render birth control invalid.
-Warning to the general population
Sterling
Halligans and Handcuffs was hopping. There were so many people packed in the bar area that I was fairly sure that Ruthie was going to go insane.
I watched her move, studying her facial features to ascertain how she was doing.
She was still pissed from this morning, I could tell right off the bat.
Although she smiled and acted like her normal self, she wasn’t all…there.
“Why don’t you just ask her?” Loki mumbled from my side.
I turned on my barstool to look at him.
“What makes you think I’m going to ask her anything?” I asked curiously.
Normally, I was pretty good at hiding my feelings.
Had to be with a man like my father, I thought darkly.
“Probably wouldn’t have noticed had I not seen you and her together at breakfast. You and her were in your own little world together that Sawyer, nor I, could see. I bet if you asked Sawyer, she’d tell you the same,” Loki explained.
Hmmm. I didn’t know how to feel about Loki knowing.
Because once one knew, they all knew.
But then I considered the question.
Why couldn’t I ask her out?
Nothing was stopping me.
I liked her and I was fairly sure she liked me.
The only thing really standing in my way right now was my inability to pursue my dreams.
Something I’d had a problem doing since I was a young kid and my mother shattered every dream I ever had and left me to fend for myself at a fuckin’ fire station.
Alone and abandoned, I’d had to make a new life.
And the new life I’d made wasn’t even worth it at times.
“Uh-oh. Your girl’s upset,” Loki said, snapping me out of my pity party.
My eyes snapped up to focus across the room on the woman in question.
She was trying to pull her arm away from a man’s grip.
And I saw red.
I don’t really know how I got through the crowd of people, but in about thirty seconds flat I was at Ruthie’s side and shoving the man away from her.
“Keep your hands off of her,” I growled menacingly.
The man’s eyes snapped with subdued fire.
“She spilled a beer on me,” he growled.
“So you show your anger by putting your hands on her?” I asked in her defense.
“I’m the victim here, not her! I was just trying to push her off my junk!” the man roared.
My eyes narrowed. “Trust me, son, if she’d had her hands on your junk, you’d have known. And since I didn’t hear you over here screaming in ecstasy, you obviously didn’t feel the real thing yet.”
I heard a few smothered laughs surrounding me, but the outraged gasp from Ruthie had me wanting to laugh.
I kept my stare on the imbecile, though.
Glaring at me, the man stood and made his way to the front door, knowing when he was no longer welcome.
“Thanks,” Ruthie muttered and hustled to the kitchen without another backward glance.
Catching Loki’s eye across the room, I saw him give me a slight chin lift in the kitchen’s direction and sighed.
Nodding at Sebastian as I passed the bar, I walked into the kitchen to see that it was empty.
“Ruthie?” I called.
Nothing.
Eyes scanning the empty space, I finally saw the kitchen’s back door ajar where it exited into the alley, and decided to follow it.
“Ruthie?” I called once again once I exited.
I could hear the sniffling before I even made it to the mouth of the alley, and my heart broke.
“What’s wrong?” I asked once I spotted her hunched form.
“I’m so tired,” she whispered.
I blinked, stunned.
“Why?”
“Everyone here is so freakin’ mean. All I was doing was walking with a beer in my hand when somebody pushed me from behind. I swear, I don’t understand what I’ve ever done to them. They don’t know me,” she said brokenly.