Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68698 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68698 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
At her words, I visibly saw Derek flinch.
I’d never gotten the whole story out of Danyetta about Derek.
I knew that they’d had a relationship. I knew that something had happened. I knew that she loved him and would never love another person as long as she lived. But that was about it.
Hell, the reason I’d agreed to have a kid with her had been because I’d seen myself in Yeti.
“We were just visiting,” Sunny said. “Y’all are on the way to the golf course.”
We were. If you made us on the way.
My brows rose at his blatant lie.
I looked at him, watched him flick his head very minutely in Morrigan and Folsom’s direction, and I knew. Whatever he had to say needed to be said without them present.
Got it.
“Well then let me walk y’all out,” I suggested.
Sunny nodded, said his goodbyes, and followed me outside. Derek was a lot slower to do so, but eventually, when Danyetta wouldn’t look at him, he left with a nod to everyone. When we were on the front porch, Sunny’s eyes went out to the area beyond. Derek joined us seconds later, crossing his arms and leaning against the pole next to the front steps.
His gaze looking at everything and nothing before he finally said, “I have a really bad feeling about that nurse being let out.”
It wasn’t as if I needed my suspicions of him being back and what I thought he might or might not do, to be confirmed through someone else. But it was good to know that someone else felt the same damn way as I had.
“The old judge, district attorney, and sheriff had some good ol’ buddy-buddy thing going on,” Derek said. “I’m in the process of going through some old files, and I feel like there were a lot of things overlooked, missed completely, and covered up. Cases that should’ve never been cases. People sent to prison and serving time for things that should’ve never been time served.” He looked at me pointedly. “We have the chance to clean things up, and we’ve partnered up to do just that.”
I nodded, happy to hear that.
“Thank you,” I said.
“What happened before won’t happen again,” he promised.
Then he went to the car, leaving Sunny and me on the porch alone.
“He’s a good guy,” Sunny said. “But sometimes he’s so literal, black and white, that it’s hard to like him.”
I grunted out a laugh. “You’re not lying.”
“I feel like possibly there’s a disconnect between him and me. That’s why the golf day,” he said. “But I did stop to say that I felt like something was going to happen. It’s a gut feeling I can feel right in here,” he pressed his hand to his chest, right over his heart. “Had these feelings since I was a kid, and they’ve never steered me wrong.”
I nodded. “You think it’s just him?”
Because I felt like it was more than just him.
I got the same feelings. Though they were now directed at quite a few people, not just the sick fuck who liked to switch babies for fun. For instance, the man that attacked Morrigan. He was just one of a multitude of people that’d been bothering me lately.
“The guy we’re holding until Monday,” he said. “He’s not saying anything. He’s barely even moved since we got him to jail after being checked over. But someone came to try to see him the other day. Another guy that said he was his ‘club brother.’ But the guy said they were leaving, and not to come find them because they didn’t want to be associated with dumbasses. His exact words. The guy practically deflated when he heard his ‘club brother’s’ words.” He sighed. “Haven’t seen them at all since. My guess on that end, it’s a dead end. Nothing will come of that. The judge will sentence him, he’ll spend time in jail, that’s the end of that.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. No, still not happy with it. No amount of jail time would ever be enough for what he’d done to my woman.
“There’s something going on with the youth population, too,” he said. “I’ve had a couple of kids your son’s age start vandalizing. Good kids, according to their parents. All of them are flabbergasted that their ‘babies’ are turning into deviant tyrants. Then there’s a growing number of teenage pregnancies. Though, luckily all those girls are of age. But there’s just a pulse in this place of bad shit going on, and I can’t figure out what it is.”
“I can ask Bowie. And Lolo,” I said. “Wake would know more about Lolo, though. She’s a good kid.”
“I notice you didn’t say your kid was a good kid,” he observed.
I remembered what the little fucker had said to me this morning as he’d gotten out of the car.