Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 112850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
I was going to let Mace go, so he could be free of me. He could have my Texas property, and I’d still work behind the scenes to fund his sanctuary. He was too perfect of a guy to be saddled with the likes of me. My purpose in his life was to build his confidence and give him a chance to shine, and boy, was he the brightest light I’d ever seen.
The piercing in my heart dropped me back to the mattress. Thankfully my stomach roiled, distracting my mental anguish as I used every bit of concentration to keep the contents of my belly where they belonged.
My phone rang. I glanced at the screen and saw Nico’s name.
Right, I was talking to him when things went south with my body.
“What?” I answered calmly.
“What’s going on? I’ve been trying to reach you. Tank says you haven’t left the house,” Nico said.
“They fired me yesterday,” I said, staring up at the ceiling. “I had a bender last night. Not feeling my best right now.”
“I heard, but you wanted out of the show so what’s the big deal?” Nico asked. Not in his normal gruff way but he was using that negotiator’s voice as if trying to lead me to an answer. Fuck that. Reasonableness had no place in my life.
“Why’re you calling me? Did Tommy post whatever he and whoever came up with?” My right hand was free, bouncing up and down on the mattress until the pain in my heart required my palm to cover my chest.
“Yeah, he did. We’re tracking your online presence, and you’re the number one trend for the day so far. We’ve found some credible threats. We’re working those, but it seems calm around here overall. Mace’s business as usual. He’s still out doing whatever he does,” Nico said, updating me.
“Hmm,” I said, seeing the mental picture of Mace’s gentle ways of coaxing his animals to respond to whatever he wanted.
And I really liked his ass in a pair of Wranglers. My cock stirred but the desire flashed and burned out. My body was in no position to consider sex with anyone.
Maybe I needed to become a monk.
“Are you thinking about my question or did you leave me again?” Nico asked.
“Ask again,” I said, unable to tick backward to remember what I’d missed.
“There’s no report of your travel itinerary for tomorrow. As far as I know, we’re all still expecting you. Has that changed?”
“I’m not coming to Texas,” I said with more strength than I felt. “I’ve wreaked enough havoc on Mace and his family. Things need to settle before I think about going back there.”
Nico went silent. I remained silent too as I rose to pull the blankets and sheets off my bed. The towel I wore fell on top of the pile.
“The Suttons seem fine, boss. Mace’s about as unaffected as he could be. His parents and sister are loving all the attention. Their business’s running out of liquor every day. The townsfolk are posting about their memories of Mace, trying to be a part of the fuss. This town isn’t sweating anything.”
Good. I believed Nico to tell me the truth. It’d make it all easier for everyone.
“Have you found anything that leads us to a source?”
“Actually yes. I told my staff that we were monitoring them, from banking information to personal communications. One of the newer guys, Bart, didn’t show up for work today. Before I count him as the infiltrator, I want to track him. If it’s him, I’ll know soon enough.”
“All right,” I said, mentally preparing to sue the fuck out of the guy. “How long do you need? I need to regroup here, probably need you and Tommy back here in a few days, after all this settles down.”
“I figured you’d be here full-time now,” Nico said. “I’ve been looking for a place to live around here.”
My silence lasted a few seconds as I decided whether to treat Nico as a friend or my employee. I went for something in the middle of those two. “Nah, I’ve caused too much harm. Mace’s on his feet again. He’ll do better without my instability.”
“I don’t know what that means,” Nico said slowly, “but what you just said doesn’t track. You’ve been working us this direction for months and months. If you’re having second thoughts…”
“That’s it. I’m having second thoughts,” I said, hanging on to such a simple out.
“Why?” Nico shot out. “You’re finally where you wanted to be. If it’s money, we can scale back on security. That’ll free up dough…”
I let him continue until I’d had a belly full.
A small… the tiniest possible inkling of common sense wanted me to cling to Nico’s words. Without question, he wasn’t wrong, but apparently my volatile personality insisted I was wrong for ever starting this with Mace in the first place.