Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 99040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 495(@200wpm)___ 396(@250wpm)___ 330(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 495(@200wpm)___ 396(@250wpm)___ 330(@300wpm)
And that meant a lot of pain for Dante.
Jo had a choice. Curly was giving her a choice. She could stay, compromising herself and the rest of them, or she could leave, condoning Dante’s torture.
She swallowed. There was a third option, maybe even a fourth. She could call in an anonymous tip and get the cops out here in no time. Or, she could run back down the beach and beg Tracker to stop. Beg him to leave with her and forsake his brothers.
Curly knew she wouldn’t choose either of those options. Despite how foolish, he knew she’d fallen for Tracker and wouldn’t ask him to turn from his family. She wouldn’t ask him to be someone he wasn’t. And she’d never call the police on him.
Tracker wasn’t someone who played by society’s rules, not if they got in the way of his family’s happiness. Just as she couldn’t condemn him to jail, she couldn’t ask him to walk away. Not if she loved him.
And, God help her, she did love him, which meant Curly was right. She had to leave to maintain plausible deniability should she ever be questioned about her involvement with Tracker or the MC.
“Please keep him safe,” she whispered.
Brooke walked over and looped her arm around Jo’s.
“Always,” Curly said with a nod.
It would have to be good enough. Even though she longed to run down the beach, kiss the hell out of Tracker, and make him promise this wouldn’t spiral into disaster, she allowed Brooke to gently tug her toward Liv.
“Ready?” her new friend asked with a solemn expression. They had to be as worried as Jo, but neither questioned Curly. It was clear they trusted him with their men’s lives and well-being.
“Yeah,” she said, casting one last glance down the beach. “Get me out of here.”
As she followed Brooke and Liv back to Brooke’s home, her mind spun like a damn teacup ride. She’d looked the other way when confronted with the knowledge a man would be tortured. Not only that, but she didn’t blame the Handlers for doing it. She wanted justice for Lock’s sister in the worst way. She wanted the baby fighting for his life to be given a loving home among the MC. And he would be so damn loved. Brooke and Liv would go bonkers over the baby and spoil him rotten.
It would never happen if Lock was arrested for a crime he had dick to do with.
The answer became as clear as the beauty of the evening’s sunset.
She had to quit her job.
More than helping to hide Lock or looking the other way as they extracted information from Dante was the deep insight that she’d pull the man’s fingernails off herself if it got them what they needed to keep the MC out of trouble.
And that meant her values no longer aligned with those of the police force.
Who knew what the hell else she’d do, but she couldn’t be a cop any longer.
She had to quit.
Well, after they sorted this mess and she felt certain the man she loved and his family were out of troubled waters.
She got held up at a long traffic light, so by the time she arrived at Brooke’s place, the ladies were already inside with Brooke’s menagerie of rescue animals. The door opened before she could knock, and a hand holding an overly full wine glass appeared in front of her face. At the same time, Brooke’s German Shepherd nudged her hand with his nose.
She used one hand to grab the wine and another to love on Ray. “Thank you.”
“Get in. We’ve got ice cream too. This is your free therapy session. You’ve got to be freaking out a little.”
“You could say that,” she said as she followed Brooke through the house and out to her beautiful screened-in pool.
Liv sat on a lounge chair with an equally loaded wine glass. “Hey, girl. Come sit. We have spent many hours solving the world’s problems with alcohol and sugar here. Welcome to the club. We are so glad to have you.”
“It’s incredible out here,” she said as she sat on a chaise and took in the beauty of Brooke’s backyard. Dogs scampered outside the pool area in the grass, except for Ray, who plopped down next to his master. “Thank you for this. I came of age in a world full of catty bitches who’d stab you in the eye with a hairpin to beat you for the title.”
“Well, I don’t even own any hairpins, so you’re safe with me,” Brooke said with a wink.
“So, how you doing?” Liv said after a moment. “That was intense this evening, and I’m sure you can guess what’s happening as we speak.”
“Honestly?”
“Of course,” they said at the same time, making Jo huff out a laugh.
“I’m screwed up over it. But probably not for the reasons you think.” She blew out a breath as she watched a lizard crawl up the screen of the pool enclosure. “I’m not freaking out because of what the guys are doing right now. I’m freaking out because I’m not freaking out about it.” She dropped her head in her hand. “Oh, my God, I sound insane.”