Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 161899 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 809(@200wpm)___ 648(@250wpm)___ 540(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 161899 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 809(@200wpm)___ 648(@250wpm)___ 540(@300wpm)
It was after ten at night.
I thought of Auggie in the shower.
We’d had sex but I hadn’t seen his body.
Even not knowing what that visual was for certain, I shivered.
Then I said, “I’ll let you go.”
“It’s safe to say I’m pretty fucking happy you called tonight, Pepper. And I don’t wanna push things. But still, phone date tomorrow? Same time?”
That didn’t cause a shiver.
It made my chest feel warm.
“I’d love that,” I said quietly.
“Good,” he murmured.
“Sleep well, Auggie.”
“All right, baby. Talk to you soon.”
“’Night.”
“’Night.”
My screen registered his disconnect and it took me not even a second to say out loud, “To hell with EMFs,” pick it up, roll to my back and hug it to my chest.
I stared at my ceiling.
And it took me a lot more seconds before I started laughing in a way I was actually giggling.
Because my baby girl had it going on.
She might be eight, but she knew.
This was what she wanted for me.
Hugging my phone.
Giggling.
And happy.
Chapter Eight
Day Made
Pepper
Yes, I can do that. No, I won’t be doing that.”
Evie’s voice was coming over my speakerphone, and the things it was saying were messing up my master plan.
She wasn’t on speakerphone because of EMFs (well, she was, but not only). She was mostly because the girls and me were in my blue Hyundai Tucson (the girls being Lottie, Hattie, Ryn and me), and I wanted everyone to hear her.
It was Tuesday, late morning.
It was also go-time on another part of my master plan.
The day before, once we sorted out the Auggie thing, the girls and I did what I said we’d do.
They listened.
We discussed.
Refined.
And now it was time to activate.
“It’d be super helpful if you did a wee bit. Not a lot. Just a wee bit,” I cajoled.
“Pez, hacking is a crime,” Evie stated.
“You’re a genius,” Ryn pointed out from the backseat (and this was true, literally, Evie’s IQ was off the charts). “Be genius at not getting caught.”
“And I don’t want you to hack everything,” I added. “Just enough to prove Reverend Clyde is the creepiest creepmeister living.”
I was hoping…porn.
My father would seriously frown on porn.
So would my sister.
“I will repeat, I was the one who was consistently against us wading into this,” Evie’s voice said. “The boys can do it, probably in a fraction of the time, and undoubtedly they won’t ef it up.”
I was mildly offended by her suggesting we might ef it up.
This was only mildly because, the truth was, there was likelihood we’d ef it up.
Which was why we needed a genius hacking Reverend Clyde’s computer.
However, she had, indeed, said this, and reiterated it, then did that some more.
On the one hand, as noted, she was a genius. We should probably listen to her.
On the other hand, I had no idea how much effort it took for Auggie to amass the kind of information he amassed in the short time he had between our situation at Juno’s school and our discussion at my house. But I had a feeling, with the sheer amount he’d been able to gather, it took a lot of effort.
I’d just agreed to an official phone date to be followed by an official date-date with Aug.
I didn’t feel in the place to ask for favors.
“And as we consistently said,” Ryn began, “the boys are busy with earning a living and other somewhat important things, like, you know, investigating a ring of dirty cops.”
“Ryn, you’ve been kidnapped…twice, and shot at,” Evie reminded her. “Have you not learned your lesson?”
“I haven’t been kidnapped,” Lottie, sitting up front next to me, cut in. “You guys have left me out of all the fun stuff. There’s one fixup left, one last chance, and I’m all in.”
Just to say, I’d been kidnapped. And during it, had a gun pointed at my head.
As such, I could testify that it had not been fun at all.
And I didn’t want a repeat.
“We’re not gonna get kidnapped,” I said.
“All right. Then if we’re not gonna get kidnapped, and you’re not gonna hack into this guy’s computer, Evie, then we’re doing this,” Lottie decreed. “I mean, for God’s sakes, when my sister’s friends got hooked up with their men, there were car bombs, high-speed chases and grenades exploding. Not that I was wanting it to go that extreme for you guys, but a couple of measly kidnappings and we’re done? We need to shake things up.”
And now I was having second thoughts about my master plan.
Because outside the hacking and my family being hella pissed at me if I did what I’d recruited the girls to do (though I hoped, in the end, they’d be enlightened), there wasn’t a ton of real danger involved in this.
At least I didn’t think.
“Fine,” Evie snapped. “Just keep the line open to me so when I hear you all screaming, I can call in the boys.”