Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 69534 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69534 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
I held up my hands. “None taken.”
“Was able to pull the police reports, though, and all of the ‘witnesses’ that were on scene didn’t see a teenage girl, but a teenage boy dressed like a girl,” Apollo said. “Kid was fuckin’ huge, too. Wearin’ a skirt? He stuck out like a sore thumb.” My eyes caught Posy’s when Apollo said, “One of them even said he had a cast on his arm.”
Posy sighed and looked up, likely praying for patience.
“We know who it was then.” Posy groaned. “Searcy broke his hand with a baseball bat a few months ago.”
“Really?” the third guy, who’d remained silent until now, said.
I tilted my head and stared at him.
I waved at him and said, “Cakes, pretty please tell me you have that name because you’re a good baker.”
“Actually,” Apollo said, answering for him. “He’s the best goddamn baker you’ll ever meet. But he hardly ever cooks.”
I frowned. “Well why not?”
“Don’t have time,” he answered. “Running One Love, Dallas. As well as keeping my finger in a few other pots, I barely have time to do anything.”
“Well,” I teased, “maybe when I get married, you’ll bake the cake for me.”
His eyes went to Posy. “If you get married to my boy, I’ll do you one better. I’ll cater the entire thing.”
“In that case,” Posy drawled. “Searcy, how do you feel about a spring wedding?”
That stupid smile stayed on my face for another half an hour before Scottie brought up the prospect of selling the ranch during dinner.
The smile slid off my face when I saw the utter devastation on Posy’s face when he started talking about selling the ranch.
“You don’t want it, though?” Posy asked.
Scottie winced. “I love this place, Poe. I truly do. But…I don’t want to live here the rest of my life. I don’t want to always be fixing what was broken years before I was born. I want to find a new place where I can make it my own. And, just sayin’, Poe, but I don’t want to do cattle. They’re stinky and a lot of work.”
Posy laughed at that, the tension ringing out of him. “Tell me everything.”
That night, as I lay snuggled up to Posy in his big, king-sized bed, I asked, “I’ll follow you anywhere. Though, maybe this time you can move in with me.”
He snorted. “Where would you like to live?”
“Dallas, somewhere,” I answered. “I was putzing around on the computer earlier, and was looking at places in Rockwall near where I heard the Claybornes all have places. And I found a hundred acres of undeveloped farmland just south of the lake. Scottie said that the address was about fifteen minutes from the clubhouse and about thirty minutes from your fire station.”
“I could transfer to Rockwall,” he said. “Originally, I’d applied there, but ultimately chose the closer station because of logistics. It’d be easy to get transferred in there. With my experience and military background, they’d hire me instantly.”
“Then let’s go,” I said. “We can look at it in the morning.”
Just like that, we were starting our lives together.
I went to sleep in his arms, but a few hours later, I woke up with him nowhere in sight.
I should’ve probably been worried, but I let him do his thing.
I had a feeling I knew what it was, anyway.
Thirty
The potholes where I used to live will knock the tampon right out of ya.
—Searcy to Posy
POSY
The kid was admiring his handiwork.
“Why’d you do it?” I asked.
The kid gasped and turned, his gaze going from me to the four bikers behind me.
“W-what?” he stuttered, his gaze bouncing around comically.
“Why’d you burn it down?” I asked. “And why are you getting your friends to pretend like they saw Calliope here doing the burning?”
The kid looked green for a short second before he attempted to lie. “I didn’t do that.”
“No?” I asked. “Then why are all the witnesses here saying that they saw you, dressed like a girl, lightin’ it on fire?”
He scrunched up his nose. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sure you don’t,” I snorted. “But I’m sure that I could go get a couple of your friends to talk. We could ask them why.”
His eyes turned from scared to cold. “That bitch fucked me up. She deserved to have her house burned down.”
“Kudos to you for waitin’ as long as you did,” I mused aloud. “If you had been a bit more careful about who saw you, I wouldn’t have thought it was you. But why frame the little sister? Why not frame the older one who actually did the breaking of your bones?’
“Calliope, the little cock tease, always gets into trouble. It was more believable that she would do it than the one who’s too busy protecting those asshole siblings of hers.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “And prove it, man. No one’s gonna think it’s me. I didn’t go to the cops pointing fingers at who broke my hand. Why would they think it was me?”