Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 75188 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75188 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
"He'd really work with a killer?"
"Honey, we work with killers every day. We are killers, many of us. That won't be the deciding factor."
"What will be?"
"If he can get him to pull the new products."
"I guess, in the big scale of life, that would tip heavily to the side of justice."
One life to save hundreds.
I think anyone would take that deal.
Even if a killer got away with their crime in the process.
"Something like that," he agreed. "I'm sorry that you have to go through this. I know this is weighing you down."
"It's a lot," I admitted. "But I will come to grips with it eventually."
"I will be right here with you through it," he assured me, pressing his lips to mine softly, sweetly.
"Hey, lovebirds," Nia called from outside the door, making us almost comically break apart. "I have tea and coffee and a change of clothes. Quin is going to be here in half an hour to tell us how things are going to go. Oh, and he has some words for Lincoln as well."
"Is it sad that I am more freaked out about Quin finding out about us than your father?"
"My father will just be happy that you aren't covered in face tattoos with gauges in your ears, reeking of pot all the time."
"Well, your exes didn't exactly set the bar high for me, huh?" he asked, smile beaming as he got to his feet, reaching down to help me onto mine.
"And your aunt already likes me."
"We're off to a great start," he said, handing me a towel.
"Yeah," I agreed, smiling at his back as he slipped out of his soaked boxer briefs. "We are off to a great start."
And I had a feeling it was only going to get better from here.
EPILOGUE
Lincoln - 2 weeks
It was the day I had been dreading since she'd first proposed it.
It had a lot to do with the fact that while Gemma aced her written test, she failed her road test for her license five times before the DMV finally tossed one at her, likely just feeling bad for her.
She wasn't a menace behind the wheel, but she wasn't a good driver either. She had a heavy foot on both the gas and the brake. She sometimes looked with her whole car instead of her head.
And she was cashing in on a promise I'd made.
To let her get behind the wheel of one of my precious cars, ones that cost a small fortune, that I never let anyone drive before.
"You're sure you don't want a helmet?" Bellamy asked, lifting a brow.
"I want bubble wrap for my whole car," I admitted, stomach in a knot.
I'd happily give this woman a lot of things.
A place in my life.
A side of my closet.
A kidney if she found herself in need of one.
But giving her the key fob I had been gripping a bit desperately for the past hour as she skipped down the street to grab brunch with her sister and a couple of their cousins--the ones who weren't huge fans of me since I'd once accidentally hit on them both--yeah, I couldn't even pretend to say I was doing this happily.
I was doing it because I made a promise. Once I did that, I stuck to it. A man was nothing if you couldn't trust his word.
So I was going to let her drive my Camaro. And pray we all made it through in one piece.
"Here they come," Bellamy said, enjoying this way too fucking much. "Hey, look. She's bringing a drink. One pothole, and that will be all over your interior--"
"Don't you have a plane to catch or something?"
"It'll wait."
Of course it would.
It was his own damn plane.
"Sorry I'm late," Gemma said, going up on her tiptoes to press a kiss to my cheek.
"Because of straws," Jules explained, sighing.
"Straws?" Bellamy asked.
"It was totally not my fault. I was taking my reusable straw out of my bag," Gemma explained, taking a sip from the metal thing she carried with her everywhere, along with bamboo cutlery in case she might ever need them to avoid using a toss away version. "And some guy decided to come up and lecture me about how big corporations are the worst polluters. As if I don't know that. It doesn't mean that turtles aren't dying from the straws, y'know? Corporate oversight doesn't mean we don't have personal responsibilities too."
"How long of a lecture was it?" I asked, looking over at Jules.
"And was he crying when she was done?" Bellamy asked.
"That only happened once!" Gemma sighed. "I am never going to live it down, am I? But, I mean, who the hell wears fur anymore? Who wakes up, goes to their closet, and decides Hey, I want to wear the flesh of an animal today! Ugh. Anyway, it wasn't that long of a lecture."