Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 76713 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76713 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
“Yes.”
“He signed himself out against doctors orders?” he asked.
“Yep. He’s a pain in the ass,” she grumbled. “And, yes, I know,” she said, slitting her eyes at me, knowing I was about to say something about it being a family trait. “He’s been out for over an hour. Already has a replacement phone and his car. So I guess he took a ride back to his house for a bit to get cleaned up before coming here.”
“At least we have some food,” Aurelio said, turning to put another pot of coffee on.
“Trav,” I tried, reaching out toward her, but she jerked away, crossing her arms over her chest.
And just like that, a weeks’ worth of progress disappeared.
That arm-crossing thing? That was how she treated me right at first. She didn’t do that to me anymore, now that she knew I typically only ticked her off out of fun, not malice or because I didn’t like her.
It wasn’t more than ten minutes before we heard a knock at the door. It wasn’t loud, but Traveler damn near jumped out of her skin at the sound.
I was the one who strode toward the door, though, looking out, then letting him in.
He looked like a different man than the one we’d seen in the bed the day before.
Out of the hospital gown and without all the shit connected to him, he seemed taller, wider, and with better coloring. His dark eyes were sharp as he looked at me, then from me to the suite.
He’d definitely stopped long enough to shower away the hospital, then carefully dress himself in a suit. He even put on cologne and an expensive-ass watch.
“How the hell you’d get her to let you put her up in a place like this?” he asked, voice low enough that his daughter didn’t hear.
“I didn’t really give her a choice,” I admitted, shrugging.
To that, his lips pursed, but he nodded, and his eyes seemed bright. Like he approved.
“Dad, you needed to let yourself recover,” Traveler said as James moved inside the suite with me following behind. Where I noticed the unmistakable bulges of holsters under his jacket and around his calf.
The man was prepared for anything.
“I did recover. In a coma. Don’t know if you’ve ever been in a deep sleep for days on end, but it makes you not want to lie around on your ass all day when it’s over. Besides, I got shit to do. Like take my city back. And protect my daughter,” he said.
I saw it then, the way her face tightened at his words. Like she was upset by them.
But why?
Didn’t she want to get her shop back?
Get her life back?
Her father getting himself back on track would secure that for her once again.
James’s gaze slid to Aurelio who was reaching a hand out toward him. “Aurelio Grassi,” he said. “August’s cousin.”
“Massimo’s brother,” James said, making my brows raise.
“Yes,” Aurelio said.
“I know a little bit about every organization in the state,” James admitted. “Even if they don’t technically belong in my town,” he added. “You guys took out Colin’s organization.”
“Are you mad they cost you money?” Traveler asked, tone sharp.
She really was in a shitty mood, and it was bothering me more than I would have thought that I didn’t know why, that she wasn’t sharing it with me.
James, clearly accustomed to his daughter leveling those kinds of remarks at him, shrugged. “I never said I was angry with them,” he said. “But they know as well as I do that certain organizations operate in certain areas. This isn’t theirs. Though I appreciate them bending the rules to look after you while I couldn’t.”
“I don’t—“ Traveler started to object.
“Let’s not,” her father cut her off. “You can get back to being angry about how I conduct my business once I get you safe again,” he added. “For now, what we really need is to get along.”
“Alright,” Traveler agreed, arms still crossed over herself, and I was starting to think that it was a self-defensive gesture when she was feeling uncomfortable or upset. “Coffee?” she asked.
“Your coffee?” he asked, taking a deep breath. Like he knew her shop’s coffee by scent. Which was pretty fucking telling about his feelings for his daughter if that was true.
“Yeah,” she agreed, nodding.
“Always, then,” he said, and she moved to make him a cup.
“There are pastries and parfait,” she offered him as she passed him his mug.
“I ate. But thanks. Now, what was on your cameras at the store?” he asked. “What?” he asked when her face fell a bit.
“Her cameras were tampered with before the attack,” I told him. “The outside ones, from above somehow, since the feed never caught anyone fucking with them before they went to static. The store ones, someone just knew how to avoid being seen screwing with them, I guess.”