Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 74501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
“You didn’t think I figured it out the minute I saw you there?” he asked cuttingly. “Bikers don’t read. Bikers don’t volunteer at runaway shelters. Bikers don’t got brains in their heads?”
“Stop it with the biker stuff,” she whispered.
“Fuck you, Georgiana,” he bit.
Her head jerked.
And then…
“No, Dutch, fuck…” She took in a huge breath and screeched, “YOU!”
After that, she started marching toward his back door.
Oh no.
She was not going to go and fuck his mission to get Carlyle some justice.
He began walking toward her, stating, “We are not done.”
She whirled on him and declared, “We so are.”
He stopped two paces away and he didn’t even attempt to disguise the disgust in his tone when he asked, “You think you got moral ground to stand on here?”
“Yeah, Dutch,” she said sharply, taking a long stride to him, and he braced because she was noticeably so pissed, it was sparking the air, zapping his skin, and he thought she was going to shove him.
She didn’t.
She halted so fast, she swayed and kept talking.
“Because I cannot fucking believe that you thought…because I was temporarily a bitch. Because I thought I was in a career crisis. And granted, me taking that out on you was totally not okay. Even if you have no freaking clue any of the other shit that’s going on in my life, not just with my job, but with my sister, and…and…whatever. I cannot believe that you would believe that I would do something so low and scummy as what you’re accusing me of doing.”
“So what were you doing there?” he asked.
“Carlyle is investigating his father’s murder.”
“No shit?”
“And my guess is, I was there for the same reason you were there. I was trying to find the guy Carlyle was talking to so I could figure out what connection he had to what happened that night so I could tell the cops and then they’ll have a lead. And that might mean finding Carlyle’s father’s murderer.”
He didn’t believe her, which was why he drawled, “Right.”
But then…
Shit.
She stared at him a beat, still pissed as shit, before that slid out of her face, and fuck…
The hurt shone clear. Hurt she could not be faking because it shimmered in the wet gathering in her eyes.
“You know, Carolyn is using Jagger,” she whispered.
He wasn’t expecting that, and both her words and tone made his chest get tight.
“What?” he whispered back.
“He gives her money. She’s got, I don’t know, four, five guys on the hook that come and go depending on who’s up next to give her a loan and who needs a break from her asking. She says she’ll pay it back. Ask your brother. But I’ll bet she hasn’t paid back a dime.”
Dutch could not believe his ears.
But champagne tastes, he knew Carolyn had those, she didn’t hide it, tricked out the way she always was.
What he couldn’t believe was that Jag was falling for that shit.
“And I’m worried,” she went on, “because the other guys are just guys. But he’s a biker. And pardon me for thinking it, but I’ll bet, woman or not, good guy biker or not, you don’t fuck over a biker. And for years, she’s been fucking over your brother. I don’t think he’s too dumb to get it. I think he likes her and thinks he’s helping her out. But it’s gonna get old and then he’s gonna wonder where his money is going. Which is to designer shoes, handbags, Dior makeup palettes and a nasty little relationship she’s got going with cocaine. And depending on how much he’s given her, who knows what his reaction will be.”
Cocaine?
He didn’t get into that.
He got into something else.
“Jagger would never hurt a woman,” Dutch said through his teeth.
“There are different ways to hurt people and the vast majority of them do not involve physical pain,” she fired back. “Of all the guys she’s taking for a ride, I think the only one she genuinely likes is your brother. So yes, when Carolyn hooked up with Jagger, I did a deep dive into MC culture and Chaos. She’s my sister, and she’s messed up, but I love her, so excuse me, because you might be you, and Chaos might be Chaos, but even you can’t stand there and deny hardcore MCs are what I think they are. Yours might be a different kind of hardcore, but Chaos is hardcore, and you know it. But I didn’t, until I met you. So I got worried. And maybe I developed an attitude about bikers. She’s my sister and she’s screwing up her life in a number of ways. Sue me.”
“Georgi—”
“And,” she cut him off, “you’re right. I’m off the kids beat. I talked to my editor and she agreed it was time I explored new horizons. She said I have talent, and she wants to see me stretch myself. So thank you for that, because that was a load off. We’re going to try a few things, see where I land in the New Evolution of Georgiana Traylor, Ace Reporter. And the crime beat was discussed and it’s an option. But I am not using a seventeen-year-old’s heartbreak to further my career. And just you thinking that, Dutch, says it all about what you think of me.”