Total pages in book: 41
Estimated words: 38439 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 192(@200wpm)___ 154(@250wpm)___ 128(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 38439 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 192(@200wpm)___ 154(@250wpm)___ 128(@300wpm)
Now, her smile faltered as she slowly handed me an envelope. It was official looking, and I had a feeling I was about to lose my ever-loving shit. I snatched it away from her, and she flinched. The envelope had originally been opened very carefully. As if whatever inside was important, and the recipient didn’t want to damage the envelope or the contents. I yanked the paper inside out, tossing the envelope to the floor. It ripped in the process. Immediately, Hope dove for it, picking it up and smoothing it where I’d crumpled it and smoothing down the edges I’d ripped, confirming my suspicions. Whatever this was, it meant something to her.
I scanned the paper. Immediately I recognized it as a marriage certificate. I glanced up at her. She seemed to hold her breath, nibbling on her bottom lip. As I returned my focus to the paper, the door to Shotgun’s office was jerked open and Esther, Shotgun’s woman, ran out of the room and straight to Hope. The woman stood solidly in front of Hope, backing the other woman away from me as she spoke softly.
“Uh, Warlock?” I glanced to my right where Shotgun came out of his office. “Might, uh… Might wanna lay that down and go back upstairs.”
Naturally, that wasn’t happening. “Not now, Shotgun.” I scanned the document. Sure enough, there was my name in bold black letters. Right alongside Hope’s. “Are you fuckin’ kiddin’ me?”
“Well, no. If you’d look at Mrs. Wagner’s will, it will explain everything.”
“My mother was as manipulative as my fuckin’ ol’ lady. Anything she did was with the sole purpose of makin’ my life miserable.”
“Come on, honey,” Esther said, trying to coax the young woman into Shotgun’s office. “Let’s go talk about this somewhere more private.”
Hope looked distressed, but resisted Esther’s efforts to remove her from the situation. “But I want my marriage certificate back,” she said. “And Mrs. Wagner’s will. They’re mine!”
“I know, honey. I know. I’ll get them back for you, but let’s go to the office.”
“There’s no way this is fuckin’ real.” I waved the certificate at Hope, crumpling it in my fist. Her gaze was glued to it, her lips parted in a gasp as if I’d destroyed her most prized possession.
“Please! Give it back! Give it back!”
“Did you make it or did my mother?”
“The state of Indiana made it! No one else!” She looked desperate. Near tears. When she broke away from Esther, she reached for the paper and pried it out of my hands. I was only too happy to let it go. Knowing what it was, holding it in my hand… It felt like a hot branding iron, imprinting this girl on my skin. Into my life. I actually rubbed my hand on my jeans, trying to shake that sensation. It had to be fake. But, somehow, I knew it wasn’t.
“She’s not lying, Warlock.” Shotgun put himself between me and Hope, his hand on my shoulder. “I started looking her up the second she walked through the gate and we knew her name. As of eight days ago, she’s Mrs. Maximilian Wagner.”
“Well, obviously I didn’t consent. Fix this!” As angry as I tried to look, there was a curious mix of titillation alongside the anger. “This is just like my mother. Always putting herself before anyone in her life.”
“You take that back!” Hope let Esther have the certificate of marriage. Probably because the other woman was helping her straighten out the crumpled parchment. “Mrs. Wagner was the kindest, most thoughtful person I’ve ever met in my life!”
“Yeah? You shoulda had her for a parent,” I snapped. “Woman never did anything but criticize me. Did you know she refused to speak to me after I joined Iron Tzars? She was a professor of law at Maurer School of Law. You think she wanted it known her son was in an MC? It didn’t matter that anything shady we did was to help people. We were still vigilantes, and that went against everything she’d stood for her whole life.”
“Well, could you blame her?” Hope stood nose to… well, nose to chest with me. She was a tiny thing, but she had bite. Like an angry Chihuahua. She might be small, but she could leave scars on a man’s ankles. Which did nothing to cool the arousal I’d started feeling toward this girl. “Her whole life was dedicated to the law. She believed in the justice system with everything in her. She believed that, while things didn’t always turn out the way we wanted or hoped, the justice system in America worked. Having a son who routinely took the law into his own hands wasn’t something she could accept easily.”
“Or at all. She tell you it’s been more than a decade since we’ve spoken?”
“Yes. She said it was something she deeply regretted. We talked about it and, while she never fully accepted that you’re a vigilante, she said she wished she’d figured out a way for the two of you to work together for the betterment of the people in your community. She said she’d since realized that you picked up where the law couldn’t intervene.”