Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 78696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Rodney smiled. “Taught her the way of business, I did. You do know she has batteries underneath the counter, right?”
My eyes widened slightly.
“No…I didn’t know that,” I told him. “Wish I’d have known that. Wouldn’t have been embarrassed at buying one of those things if I had!”
“You weren’t embarrassed.” He scoffed. “My Lennie is a model saleswoman. She uses what she has to her best advantage, and doesn’t bat an eye at fleecing a big man like you. I taught her everything I know,” he grinned.
I rolled my eyes to the rapidly fading sun overhead, and leaned my head back against the chair.
After we’d found the little girl, she’d immediately been taken to the hospital, freeing the boys and me to spend the day in Ronda Drew’s kitchen where she practically force fed us all of the food she’d been cooking while we were searching.
Remy had left to pick up his kids, but then he’d arrived back with them less than fifteen minutes later, and I got to see, once again, how well him and his children fit into the family.
And it hurt.
Mostly because I wished I could’ve had that with Tanner and me.
I wished that Tanner could’ve sat in the Drew kitchen and eaten fifteen cookies too many just like Remy’s girls had.
I also wished Tanner had met what would’ve been his future step mother and her family.
Because, as I was eating a piece of fried chicken and watched the way Lenore’s face glowed, I knew I wouldn’t be able to function without her by my side.
The last few days had been pure hell as I tried to stay away from her.
It hadn’t worked too well.
I’d found myself riding past her place…hanging out at the waffle house to see her sitting at her counter at work flipping through magazines.
I’d watched as she pushed her cart through the supermarket.
I literally hadn’t gotten a damn thing done all fuckin’ day long, and I hadn’t liked it.
If I wanted to be with Lenore, not a damn thing would stop me.
Especially when I knew that she was safer with me, than she was without me.
Which had been figured out only moments before I’d gotten the call that a little girl was missing.
“You spend a lot of time out here?” I asked Rodney.
“Yeah, I do. I spend about four to six hours out here a day, if it’s a weekday. About ten or so if it’s the weekend,” he answered. “Why?”
Rodney had the red hair same as his daughter, but that’s where the similarities ended.
I’d never seen a tan red head before, but Rodney pulled it off.
Which I guessed was par for the course if you spent that much time under the sun.
He was also big and bulky, something which Lenore was not.
Lenore had delicate curves, smooth, milky white skin, and a softness about her that her father did not.
“You ever notice anything suspicious? Anything out of the ordinary?” I asked.
He contemplated that for a moment. “Yes. But not often. Mostly, I just see non registered boats that I call in. If I have to pay for that, everybody else should have to, too.”
His defense made me smile.
It was true.
If I had to pay taxes, so should the next guy.
“You got a problem with the lake?” Rodney asked after I remained silent too long for his liking.
“I always have a problem with Caddo,” I sighed.
“Now you sound like my girl. Her and her irrational fear over the lake. Do you know she can go into any other river or ocean in the world, just not this one? How does that make any sense at all? The girl has a screw loose,” Rodney shook his head.
I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Your girl was traumatized by seeing you hurt in this body of water. I’m sure she has no control over what she feels when she gets near this lake or the bayous. I’m sure it’s a lot bigger than you or me can even comprehend, but regardless. The problems with Caddo Lake are all too real, and not a single river in the nation has the same problem as this one, since the lake runs into rivers at both ends.” I answered.
Rodney smiled. “Stickin’ up for my girl,” he said. “I like it.”
I shrugged. I didn’t care that he liked it.
Nor would I care if he didn’t like it.
What I cared about was the fact that I was possibly putting his daughter into harm’s way by just being in her presence.
I seemed to have a big fat fucking sign on my back that declared me as numero uno.
The big bad man that was trying to fuck with someone’s stupid law getting passed.
I’d gotten a letter, a certified fucking letter, in the mail this morning by a right bitch of a woman filing a lawsuit against me for sexual misconduct during a case.
A case I’d only started a few weeks ago when I handed my son’s case off to Wolf.
A case that I’d yet to question anybody on, let alone some woman.
I knew what it was for.
They were trying to get me off the case, and shoved so far into hot water that I wouldn’t be able to offer any assistance for anything related to my son or his case.
Which was excellent timing seeing as I was the one to file the motion with my superior to execute a wiretap on the phone number I’d gotten from Justin Hayes.
They’d tried the scare tactics, and then moved on to attacking me professionally, thinking that if they got me mired in bullshit lawsuits and charges, they could damage my name or position.
Little did they know that I was so far off the straight and narrow that it no longer mattered.
If I never worked another day of law enforcement in my life, it would be okay.
As long as my son’s killers were taken care of, that was.
“I can keep an eye out for you.”
However, Rodney’s eyes were on the man who was still trying to fix his boat.
It was funny to watch.