Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 88736 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88736 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
“I’ll tell Kara,” Draco replied as we came to a stop in the forecourt. “The girls are done with softball, so our schedule just opened up.”
“Fuck, I missed the season,” I murmured. I loved watching my nieces play ball. I’d been able to manage a few games over the past couple of years, but it wasn’t enough. I’d missed most of their lives.
“You’ll be here next year.”
“Home for good,” my dad said with a sigh, shaking his head. “Fuckin’ finally. You find a place yet?”
“Not yet.” I glanced over my shoulder as men filed out of the front door, headed to the connected garage. “Tommy’s gonna show me some places next week.”
“You thinkin’ of buyin’ or rentin’?” Dad asked.
“Rentin’ for now.”
“You should take the rental that’s in our neighborhood,” Draco said, looking up from his phone. “Yards are big, houses aren’t too close together, and you can babysit for us.”
“Curt,” Grease called from the door to the clubhouse. “Come here a minute.”
“Shit,” Draco said, raising his eyebrows. “You’ve been here a week. How’d you already get called into the principal’s office?”
“It’s a gift,” I joked as I moved back toward the building.
Inside, Grease waved me toward the little room we’d just left. I tightened my hand around the phone in my fist, then set it back on the bar as I passed. Phones weren’t allowed in church. Ever. It didn’t matter why you were in there.
Inside, both of my grandfathers were sitting at the table. Most days, I was proud that I was Aces on both sides of my family, but at the moment, it just felt like a pain in my ass. If the two of them had been accountants, I could’ve spoken to them with my phone in my hand.
“How you settlin’ in?” Dragon asked, turning to face me.
“Still sleepin’ on Draco’s couch,” I said with a smile, looking over my shoulder as Grease and my dad stepped inside behind me and closed the door. “Not settled yet.”
“When’s Dylan get here?” Casper asked, gesturing for me to sit.
“He’s on the road,” I replied, dropping into the chair across from him. “I’m waitin’ on his check-in.”
It felt weird to sit there. I didn’t have a seat at the table yet. During church, I usually stood along the wall with the other members who weren’t officers.
“We won’t keep you long,” Grease said, moving to his own seat.
“What’s this about?” I looked around at their faces. Thankfully, no one seemed pissed.
“Got a job for you,” Dragon said.
“Please fuck, don’t tell me you’re sending me out of state,” I joked, running my hand through my hair.
No one laughed, and my gut fucking sank.
“Not long term,” my dad said from his place beside me.
Yeah, that’s what they’d said eighteen fucking years ago. I kept my arguments behind my teeth and waited for someone to explain.
“You remember Harv down in Sacramento?” Casper asked. “Died last year?”
“Vaguely,” I replied. From what I could recall, he’d been a good friend to the club and had a hand with custom shit like I’d never seen before or since. He’d slowed down by the time I was old enough to appreciate it, but a couple of the boys still had his mods on their vehicles.
“He was a friend to the club,” Grease said, reaching up to scratch his cheek. “Reached out before he passed and called in a marker.”
“And you’re just gettin’ around to it now?” I asked dubiously.
“Didn’t see a way to repay it until now,” Grease answered flatly. “He’s got a daughter, Theodora. She’s in deep down there. Had a son with Mike Granger.”
“Fuck’s sake,” I muttered. Mike Granger had died three years before. He’d been a supreme asshole, and he’d been that way because he could. His fuck of a father controlled 75 percent of the drug trade through Sacramento, and what he didn’t control, he still had his fingers in.
“As you can imagine,” Grease continued. “Harv was concerned about leaving her.”
“With good reason.”
Grease nodded in agreement.
“From what we’ve gathered, the Granger family keeps a loose hold on Theodora and her kids. Don’t get up in her shit, but make sure that she remembers they’re there.”
“She work for them?”
“Unclear,” Grandpa Casper said. “But she claims she hasn’t done any work for them in the last five years.”
“You’ve been in touch?”
“We’ve reached out,” he confirmed.
“We need you to go down,” Grandpa Dragon announced. “Drive her and the kids back up here.”
“Quietly?”
“Semi.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“That means,” my dad said, turning toward me. “She’ll be ready, but she can’t look like she’s fleein’.”
I just stared at them.
“She’s not escapin’,” Grease said quietly, watching me closely. “Yeah? Nothin’ to escape from. She’s just movin’ to Oregon to be near her man.”
It took longer than it should’ve to realize what he was saying.
“You want me to play house with this woman.” My voice was flat.