Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 137310 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 687(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 458(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137310 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 687(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 458(@300wpm)
“We?”
I nodded while taking a sip.
“Di, baby, this isn’t my house,” he told me something I knew.
“We’re in this together, aren’t we?” I asked.
His lips curved up, taking his beard with them, and I liked that look.
“We are that,” he agreed.
I sensed his assent had a double meaning, and since mine did too, I was totally down with that.
“Speaking of my house, how did you sleep?”
“All good.”
“Liar, liar, pants on fire.”
A sharp, but quiet, bark of laughter escaped him, and I liked that too.
What I didn’t like was that it also sounded rough, like he didn’t laugh all that much.
With no other choice with all the stuff that was brewing, I had to let that go.
For now.
“Have you talked to Big Petey?” I inquired.
“Called him before you. He’s probably on his way by now.”
That was good. Madison had definitely bonded with him, and it seemed her gift of the phone cemented that.
“It’d be good you could get her to the station,” Hugger remarked. “We can get you there, and you’ll be safe there, since I got news from Big Petey that Wash is also in Phoenix. He showed last night. He wants a meet, and we’re guessin’ that meet means he’s gonna try to scrape Chaos off so they can go it alone. We’ll take security, and they’ll deal with the Babićs.”
“Wash?”
“Prez of Resurrection.”
Oh.
“They probably should know which Babić they’re dealing with,” I noted.
“I don’t think they care.”
Eek!
“Okay, so our plan is, you get the bathroom first while I sip coffee and call my boss to tell her I’m taking a personal day,” I stated. “Then I’ll do the bathroom thing, I’ll wake up Madison, and get her good with her parents coming over, while also getting her good with going in and being re-interviewed by the police.”
“Good plan.”
“So, nothing much, except moving some minor mountains before eight in the morning.”
Hugger smiled. “Yeah, nothing much, except that.”
Gulk.
“You got this,” Hugger stated before coming right in to press his lips tight to mine.
Coffee and morning breath was a no go for me to offer up for a kiss.
But I’d take a tight press from him any day.
He got up and headed to the bathroom.
I sipped my coffee and scrolled on my phone until I found Annie’s number.
And when I hit go, I hit go on making the effort to move a mountain.
“They’re gonna be really mad.”
The time was imminent, and by that I meant Hugger had gone down to escort Mr. and Mrs. O’Keefe up to see their daughter.
Rayne was with them.
I was with Madison and Big Petey in my living room.
Big Petey was providing support and presence. Madison was not fretting as much as she was freaking.
She’d agreed to this after I told her about the crying and choking up and needing a second phone call because they were so overwhelmed with emotion.
But I could tell she was having second thoughts.
“I don’t like how they go, they’re out,” Big Petey stated.
Madison and I looked to him.
“Hear me, girl?” he asked Madison.
“I caused all this being stupid, Big Petey, and I got myself—”
“Garbage,” he cut her off sharply. “You didn’t do that first thing to yourself, Maddy, darlin’. Put that shit right outta your head. Now you hear that?”
“Yes, Big Petey,” she said quietly.
“They blame you, they’ll answer to me before I put them out,” Big Petey threatened.
Christ on a cracker, this was killing me, because it felt like I had to fight crying about five hundred times a day.
This time was because I wished my dad had acted like Big Petey after what happened to me.
Madison didn’t have a chance to respond to his threat.
We heard the front door open and Big Petey moved to stand in front, and just to the side, of Madison.
Worth a repeat, I really liked these men.
I moved into her, taking her hand.
She held mine tight.
Hugger rounded the wall to the dining room first.
He stepped to the side and two people came in after him.
It was then I saw Madison was a carbon copy of her mom. She was a wee thing with lots of blonde hair and big blue eyes.
Her father gave Hugger competition with bulk, though Mr. O’Keefe’s was softer (so Hugger won, then again, obvs, he’d win anyway).
Both their eyes were pinging everywhere until they landed on Madison, and then they stopped dead.
I squeezed her hand.
She squeezed mine back.
Rayne came up the rear and halted behind the O’Keefes.
No one said anything, no one even moved.
Until Mr. O’Keefe’s guttural “My baby girl” sounded.
Then Mrs. O’Keefe’s sob sounded.
And then Madison let me go and flew across the room to her dad.
He wrapped his arms around her in a hug so big, he pulled her off her feet.
Mrs. O’Keefe burrowed in, and he held his daughter aloft even as he let her go with one arm to hold his wife.