Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 122097 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122097 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
I grin, then wink at her. “This is OK with you? Or shall I be poetic or somethin’ instead?”
“Nothing wrong with both.”
Now I’m practically giggling. “Is that the only note you have for me? Your request list is dirty poetry. Is there anything else I can improve upon?”
She hums a little. Which, I’m not gonna lie, comes out pretty fucking sexy. Enough to have me wishing I didn’t ask for this stupid SCIF meeting with Amon. “Well, I have to be honest here, Collin. I wasn’t aware you wanted notes when we got started earlier, so I wasn’t in a takin’-them frame of mind. But I tell you what. Next time I will pay closer attention and then we can discuss it when it’s over, how’s that?”
“Peaches.” I say this with a dead serious face and voice. “If you give me notes on what I can do better, I swear to the fuckin’ Mother, I will go above and beyond.”
She’s biting her lip when I look over, but she’s grinning too.
“Am I scaring you?”
Lowyn slowly shakes her head. “You wish, Collin Creed. You wish.”
“That feels like a challenge.”
Her eyes are all squinty, she’s smilin’ so big. “You can take it any way you want.”
And so I do. So I do.
When we pull in to the compound it’s already almost eight o’clock. Earlier I was thinking we’d get here right after shutdown, I’d have my little meeting, we’d grab some barbecue, and we’d be home pretty early. Long before the party Ryan, Nash, and Amon are throwing for the new hires really got started.
But the sex kinda threw that timeframe to the wayside and now we’re arriving in the thick of it.
“What the hell is going on here?” Lowyn is turning around in her seat trying to take it all in.
“The new hires. They’re gettin’ the welcome treatment.”
“Did you hire every unemployed man in the state of West Virginia or what? There are hundreds of people here.”
She’s right. Every time I come to this place we seem to have more and more people on the fuckin’ payroll. “All of West Virginia and parts of Ohio too, by the looks of it.”
It’s a slow crawl to get past everyone and up to Nash’s house, which is the first one you come to when you pull in, so getting to my house—not that there’s any reason to go there—would be nearly impossible. But I manage it and pull my Jeep right up to Nash’s front porch.
Lowyn laughs at this. “You never did care much for driveways and parking lots.”
I turn the engine off and shake my head. “Don’t see much point when there’s empty spaces everywhere. But I will not park on your lawn, Low.” I take her hand and kiss it. “Don’t worry.”
We get out and make our way up the porch stairs and into Nash’s house. I see Amon first. He’s got a beer in his hand and he’s talking to a group of men, a couple of whom I saw today working the Revival. Not Lowyn’s teenagers, other guys. A little bit older.
I catch Amon’s eye and nod at him. So he excuses himself and comes over.
“Hey, Low.” He pokes Lowyn in the ribs, making her squirm. “Lookin’ good, peaches.” Then he winks at her.
Lowyn grins at Amon nearly the same way she grins at me. “Why, hello there, Amon. This is a nice place you got here.”
“Isn’t it?” Amon looks at me. “It’s home now, huh? Even though you’re not even living here.”
“It’s hard to live in a house with no windows, Amon.”
“For sure. That’s why the windows are missin’ in the first place, Collin.” Then he looks at Lowyn. “You can thank me later, peaches.”
Lowyn laughs. Shakes her head a little.
“All right.” I blow out a breath. “Where’s Nash and Ryan? I need someone to keep Lowyn company while we talk.”
“The SCIF is in the bunker,” Amon says. “And you made me save all that junk for Lowyn to pick through, so she can just come with us and do that while we’re downstairs. No one will bother her in the church. It’s all been reinforced. We just finished it up this afternoon.”
“How about it?” I ask Low. “You wanna pick through junk while we have our meeting?”
“Pick through your junk, Collin?” She raises an eyebrow, then laughs. “Yes. That sounds perfect.”
We walk back outside and Amon is amused. “You two seem to have picked up right where you left off.”
I take Lowyn’s hand as we head for the church and silently agree. We sure did.
We stop at the front door—which, just a few days ago, was made of wood and there were two of them. A nice, churchy double door. But now there is just one and it’s made of solid steel, making the front side look more like a bank vault than a house of God.