Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 68735 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68735 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
He’d apparently had a very large project he’d been working on at his job and couldn’t get away.
According to the club brothers that’d talked about Gunner today while we waited for him to arrive at Webber’s house, Gunner owned a business called Angel Security. AS was founded by Gunner after Gunner’s son passed away in a school shooting. He’d made it his life’s mission after he retired from professional baseball to help secure schools and prevent school shootings from occurring all over the country.
He was very good at his job, and he was the one Truth Teller that I knew the most about, because he was semi-famous for both his role in his organization as well as his major league baseball career.
It’d been a few years since I’d seen him in person, though, and the mop of curly hair surprised me when he got out of his truck and came up the front walk to meet Webber and Audric in the front yard.
I looked down at Lottie’s curly hair and shook my head.
That should’ve been one of the first clues.
Their hair had the same texture and everything.
And damned if the cute little dimple that flashed on Gunner’s face when he offered his hand to both men upon arrival didn’t outdo the one on his daughter’s cheek.
Seeing them both like this…there was no way that I should’ve missed it.
“It’s obvious now,” Cakes said. “I can see how y’all would’ve thought she was mine. But it’s the hair and the dimple. Different shades of blonde, but the curl pattern and everything. Like father and daughter.”
I agreed.
I also didn’t back away when Cakes came up to the window a couple of feet away from me.
My feet seemed glued to the carpet where I stood at the window.
Not even the men in the room—and there were a lot of them—could peel me away.
I was invested now.
So damn invested that not even my instincts that told me to run screaming out of the room could pull me away.
Audric gestured toward the house, and Webber said something else, and I wondered if they were going to do it right there in the front yard.
Webber’s nosy neighbor was in the front yard watering her flowers, staring at every single thing that was going on across the road.
“Think they’re just going to drop the bomb right there?” I asked the man at my side.
“He might feel overwhelmed and ganged up on with all of us here witnessing this. So I’m thinking probably right there,” Cakes said.
A ding sounded, and I looked toward the kitchen in surprise.
“That’s my cake.”
“You made cake?” Copper asked. “What the fuck, man?”
“You’ll get to try it now, at least,” Cakes said as he walked out of the room.
“I got out of prison. I got married. I’ve got a kid. And not once has he made me a cake. And my wedding doesn’t count because I never got a piece. But all of a sudden Gunner gets some great news, and he gets a cake?” Copper grumbled.
“Stop your bitching, brother,” Copper’s younger brother, Chevy, grumbled. “Each slice is like eight hundred calories. You’re not getting any younger, and that shit sticks to your gut.”
“Fuck off,” Copper grumbled. “I don’t have a gut. You do.”
“I do not.”
“Boys.” Silver laughed. “Neither one of you have a gut. And Cakes made a cake because he’s stressed. Not because he wanted Gunner to have it.”
I turned back to the lawn, and my heart dropped.
They’d told him.
Gunner looked like he’d been punched in the gut.
His eyes were huge, I could physically see the pulse at his neck throbbing. His mouth had dropped open, and his hands were fisted at his side.
He looked wild and in disbelief, and two seconds away from bolting.
They talked some more, and Gunner was shaking his head, his face ashen.
“He’s gonna bolt.”
Another man came up beside me, and I looked up to find the man they called Hagrid standing there.
He was over six-foot-five, had a long beard that resembled a Yeti’s, and looked like he could break lesser men in half.
Still, my instincts didn’t tell me to bolt.
What was going on with me?
“I see that,” I murmured.
“I’m going out there.”
I didn’t bother to turn around to see that Apollo was heading for the door.
The door slammed, and then Apollo was outside, marching right up to Gunner.
Gunner watched him come, his feet practically bouncing as he prepared for flight.
But something Apollo said must’ve caused him to stop and think.
“Fuck it,” Hagrid said beside me.
Then he was opening the window, and Apollo’s deep, strong words flowed in along with the breeze.
“…give fucking anything to have a second chance,” Apollo finished.
My eyes flicked to Gunner’s face, and I saw the second that those words clicked into place, settled somewhere deep that he could really comprehend them.
“And deep down, you know you would, too,” Apollo continued. “No one is asking you to do anything right now. We just want to get some information out of you. She needs surgery. You are her father, and you can provide that information that we need to make sure that she has the best chance.”