Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 110721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Her eyebrows pinched together. “Eighty-sixed? I have to assume that your version isn’t anything like mine.”
Yeah, the meanings weren’t even close. Once again proving how different the two of them were. “Your version sounds borin’. For us it means taking someone eight miles out and burying them six feet fuckin’ under.”
Her mouth dropped open. “Mine might be boring but yours sounds illegal. ”
Stone cocked an eyebrow. “Ain’t illegal if it never happened.”
Her lips flattened out. “I’m sure the person being eighty-sixed would beg to differ.”
“By that time, the beggin’s over.”
She pulled in an audible breath as she scrubbed her palm across her forehead. Her gaze sliced from him back to the house. To where her son was.
Stone got it. Her son just lost his father and would be upset when he found out. Even though Baby Bird didn’t know all the truth about what a piece of shit his sperm donor had been.
The remains of his anger washed away. Everyone who belonged to him was now back together and safe. He needed to make sure it stayed that way.
“You don’t look upset,” he murmured.
Her blue eyes landed back on him. “Believe it not, I don’t feel anything. What Vic did to Sunny was unforgivable. I’m sorry I told you to spare him in the first place. That was my mistake because I was trying to be the better person. Just like I hoped he would’ve learned his lesson in prison. Again, my mistake. His downward spiral was never going to reverse direction.” She sighed. “Now my concern is with Wren and figuring out how to explain why he’ll never see his father again. I’m going to have to lie about it.”
No shit.
“Sure you’ll come up with somethin’. Thinkin’ you didn’t tell him it was his father who took Sunny.”
Taryn shook her head. “No. If possible, I never want him to know that. Maybe you can ask Sunny not to tell him, either.”
“Doubt she put two and two together to figure out who he was. If she did, after she wakes up, gonna ask her to keep his name to herself. Can’t guarantee she won’t slip or he won’t figure it the fuck out.”
Her expression turned grim. “I’ll deal with it if that happens.” She placed her hands on her hips and glanced around. Like she was trying to avoid meeting his eyes. “In the meantime, it looks like my problem has been solved.”
He wasn’t liking how she said that. “This one, yeah.”
“That means Wren and I will no longer need protection.”
He definitely wasn’t liking the direction this conversation was headed. They had already discussed her staying so she could save more money. “From your ex, no.”
“I can go back to living my life as it should be. I can find a new place and a new school for Wren.”
Yeah, fuck that. She might still be bent about him being pissed earlier, but he’d had a damn good reason. “Nothin’ wrong with the school he’s in now.”
“I would have to remain in the district for him to stay in that school.”
“No point in movin’ him, then. He likes it there.” Wren also loved having a “sister.” And Sunny was starting to enjoy having a “brother.” She might try to hide it, but Stone could see right through his girl.
Taryn continued as if he hadn’t said shit. “I’m not sure where I want to settle yet. Now that the cooking channel is going strong and my online classes are bringing in a decent amount of money, I can move my business anywhere.”
For fuck’s sake!
Almost everything he suggested or did for her made it possible for her to leave.
Taking care of her threat. His suggestion about doing the online classes…
He’d cut his own damn throat. A throat that was getting tighter by the second with her talk of leaving. “No.”
She pulled in a breath and set her jaw. “Look—” She raised her palm to stop his next no, then finished with, “I appreciate everything you’ve done, but—”
“Fuck that shit. No buts.”
Again, she continued like he hadn’t even spoken. “I need to give my son a stable home and living with the VP of an outlaw motorcycle club isn’t it. He’s seen enough violence already and I don’t want him exposed to more.”
“Taryn,” he growled.
“This was supposed to be temporary, remember?”
“Fuckin’ know what we agreed to. You’re supposed to help me with Sunny.”
“Are you saying that you only want me to stay because of Sunny?”
Holy fuck, she just expertly backed him into a corner.
She outsmarted him.
She was trying to get him to admit he wanted her to stay. That their “arrangement” was no longer that. It was a relationship.
Jesus. He could kill a man and not miss a second of sleep, but the idea of being in a committed relationship made him fucking sweat. His heart was racing and his palms were getting clammy.