Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 79938 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79938 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Alaric, the piece of shit, flipped through the bills. Counting. He pocketed the stack, apparently satisfied that they hadn’t tried to get one over on him. “Lot of groceries for the two of you.”
Galen went still, but nothing showed on Theo’s face—not even a flicker in his charming smile. “Galen eats enough for four men. As you said, he’s… massive.” He sank enough innuendo into the last word to make his cousin blush a deep red. Theo kept talking, every inch of his filled with a studied casualness. “And the other thing I asked you to look into?”
“I went to the village. It’s old school, so they only have electronic records from ’01 forward.” Alaric hesitated. “It’s like he claimed—it burned down last year. Whole thing. They lost a couple decades worth of birth certificates, including hers.”
Galen crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the counter. Watching. The truth was there in Alaric’s restless hands and the tension in his back. He couldn’t see the kid’s face, but he’d bet his last dollar that he was having a hard time meeting Theo’s gaze. He lifted his hands and let them drop. “Sorry, cousin.”
“It’s no matter.” Theo pulled him into a quick hug. “If I need anything further, I’ll call.”
Alaric took a touch too long to walk out of the room, and seemed to have some trouble with his car. Theo joined Galen at the window, watching until the man finally drove away—peering out at the house the entire time. “Trouble.”
Galen nodded. “He’s lying. There was a fire—the papers confirmed Phillip’s story—but he’s holding something back.”
“I know.” Theo sighed and rubbed a hand over his face, suddenly looking years older. “We’ll drive down there tomorrow and see what we can find. Even if the clinic burned down, there should have been backup records stored in a secondary location. We just have to find them.”
“Lot of trouble for someone to go through.”
“That’s what I’m thinking.” Theo gave himself a shake. “Looks like we’re on the right track.”
A floorboard creaked just outside the kitchen and every instinct Galen had went on red alert. He held up a hand and motioned for Theo to keep talking.
Theo’s brows drew together but he nodded. “We’ll get the groceries unloaded and figure out the next step tonight.” He kept going, rattling off menu ideas and other nonsense.
Galen crept around the kitchen island. He touched his gun, but he didn’t think for a second that it was an enemy on the other side of the wall. No, it was a nosey little woman who didn’t know how to follow orders. Sure enough, when he burst into the formal dining room, he was greeted with a startled yip and the sight of Meg landing on her ass.
Amusement crept through him as she climbed to her feet, as dignified as a queen, and brushed imaginary dust from her jeans. Meg lifted her chin. “Galen.”
“Meg.” He raised his eyebrows at her audacity. She was just going to brazen through this, and hell if that didn’t have him fighting a smile. “I could have sworn you were ordered to go upstairs.”
She raised her eyebrows in response, a perfect mirroring of his expression. “How am I supposed to know what’s going on if you send me away every time you’re about to have an important conversation?”
“You could ask.”
She opened her mouth, seemed to reconsider, and shut it. Those witchy hazel eyes flashed. “You wouldn’t tell me.”
“Too late to find out now.” He grabbed her and tossed her over his shoulder, enjoying the way she yipped again and immediately started cursing him out. He walked back into the kitchen to find Theo had made good use of his time. Half the groceries were unloaded. Galen gave Meg the tiniest of shakes. “We have an eavesdropper.”
“So I gathered.”
Meg finally managed to finish sputtering. She smacked his back. “Put me down, asshole. You can’t just manhandle me whenever you feel like it. I didn’t sign up for this. I didn’t sign up for any of this.”
He couldn’t argue that, but she seemed to be forgetting one crucial fact. Galen readjusted his grip on her, sliding her more securely onto his shoulder. “Funny, but I could have sworn Theo offered to get you set up somewhere while we dealt with this problem. You chose to come with us, just like you chose to ignore my order to keep yourself out of this. So tell me again how you didn’t sign up for any of it.”
She just cursed more viciously.
Galen met Theo’s gaze, his friend weighing her response. Theo finally grinned, the first real grin Galen had seen on him in months. “I’d say this infraction deserves a punishment, wouldn’t you, Galen?”
“If you try to spank me, I will fucking gut you.”
Galen tilted his head in question, but Theo was focused entirely on Meg. He motioned for Galen to set her on the counter, which he was only too happy to do. They might be tempted to play this game out, but the truth was that Meg hadn’t signed up for the mess she was on the receiving end of. She was a civilian. No matter how he’d warned her, she couldn’t be expected to know the stakes.