Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 69772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
I hadn’t meant it to come out sounding so malicious, but he just made me so freakin’ mad!
The man was so damn stubborn, and once he got it in his head that he was right, there was no changing his mind.
“I know this.” He threw up his hands, fuming. “But this is one thing we can at least give her.”
“Then how will we pay for it, Costas?” I asked him bluntly. “She didn’t want your blood money to pay for her expenses. As you know. And I have,” I pulled out my phone and scanned my banking app. “Exactly nine hundred dollars left in my savings.”
Costas’s teeth clenched.
He knew, just as well as I did, how our grandmother felt about everything he did. She was not impressed with how he lived his life. She loved her grandboy like no one else could, faults and all. But she still let him know, up until she couldn’t speak anymore, that he needed to turn his life around.
To do that, he’d have to leave the gang. Which he wasn’t ready to do yet.
“Honey,” Costas started, but I couldn’t take it anymore.
I was just so, officially, done.
“No,” I said before he could continue. “I’m not doing this with you. I’ve done a lot of sacrificing over my life, but I’m done. We’re going to do the cremation thing. I have enough to do that.”
Costas’s jaw clenched.
“Well, how the fuck’re we gonna get her there?” he snapped.
I didn’t know.
Someone might get suspicious about seeing a body bag in my car and start asking questions.
“Let me call the place and ask,” I snapped as I stormed outside.
And, of course, that was when I nearly ran into some of his sheep. One that looked incredibly familiar.
Not even the hair dye and the contacts could hide a Carter face from me.
I knew the Carters better than they knew themselves—at least two of them, anyway.
I knew that jaw. That hair line. The stance.
All Carter.
Gable caught sight of me from where he was standing in the back of the group and flared his eyes at me.
I quickly looked away, knowing exactly why he was there.
I knew he was undercover. I just never expected him to be undercover when dealing with my dumbass brother who needed a reality check.
Maybe this was his wake up call…
I pushed past them all, phone already to my ear, and swallowed hard when the man on the other line answered. “Yeah, my grandmother just passed away. I was hoping to talk to you about some options.”
When I looked back, not a single man was left outside, because they’d literally gone into my should-be sanctuary.
I gritted my teeth, angry all over again.
I hated them in my house!
Fuck my life.
If I had any money to my name right now, I’d be so gone.
Want to know what Texas is like in the summer? Take a shower, don’t dry off, then put on your clothes.
—Quinn’s secret thoughts
QUINN
“What’s up, Fletch?” I called into the phone distractedly.
The gang-on-gang violence never took a break, hence the reason I was at work on a Sunday night with no end in sight.
Two gang bangers had walked into the same grocery store, which apparently was on neutral territory, and had decided that the grocery store belonged to them. Words were exchanged, and then further talks escalated into outright violence.
Overall, those two gang bangers had caused over a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of damage to the store, the food in the store, and the parking lot after one decided to run the other one over with his car.
“Hey,” Fletch said without preamble. “I just ran a call. I’m sorry to hear about Shayne’s grandma, man. I didn’t see you there, or I would’ve offered you the condolences in person.”
I froze. “What?”
“Her grandma, man.” He sighed. “I know y’all loved her like your own. She used to make those super awesome cookies that you’d bring to the locker room. I’ve been dreaming about those cookies since high school.”
My stomach dropped. “What are you talking about, Fletch? Did something happen to her?”
Fletcher Daniels paused for an extremely long time, and then, “Has Shayne not called you yet to tell you? Man, y’all were attached at the hip in high school. I know I just got back a few years ago, and we don’t see each other that much, but why would you not know that your girl’s grandma just died?”
I closed my eyes as waves of emotion poured over me.
“We broke up,” I croaked. “A long time ago.”
Fletch remained silent for so long that I thought I’d lost him. Not that I cared.
My mind was on other things.
Other people.
Shayne.
Then again, my mind was always on Shayne. Not once in the last fuckin’ ten years had my brain not been focused on Solei Shayne Rodriguez in some way.
“I don’t even know what to say,” Fletcher said quietly. “I just assumed when they were talking about not being able to afford embalming and all that jazz that maybe the grandma hadn’t left the money in the bank to allow for it. I offered that crematorium place on Sixth Avenue. The ones that take direct cremations? I just… Wow, Quinn. I can’t believe y’all aren’t together anymore. I thought for sure y’all would be together forever. The way y’all loved… That’s why I divorced my ex-wife. I thought y’all’s love was what I needed to strive for.”