Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 125517 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 628(@200wpm)___ 502(@250wpm)___ 418(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125517 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 628(@200wpm)___ 502(@250wpm)___ 418(@300wpm)
“About time.” The brother stepped aside to let him in. “I have to be at work in three hours.”
Doom closed the door and shot L.C. an irritated glance as he removed the backpack he was carrying. “Next time, talk a little louder. The people living on the first floor might not have heard you bitching.”
L.C. gave him an apologetic grimace. “Sorry, just want to get out of this shit hole. What in the fuck? If she’s a recruit, why is Wizard letting her stay here?”
“We didn’t know. She has two good jobs. When I checked her out, she gave the gated apartment complex next door as her address.”
“She deliberately lied?” Cyrus rose from the couch he had been lounging on when Doom walked into the apartment. “Then why hasn’t Wizard cut her loose?”
“Two reasons,” Doom said, setting his backpack down on the new couch he had purchased hours before. “We want to know why she lied, and Wizard has a hard-on for one of Arden’s bosses.”
Doom watched Cyrus shrug into his jacket, preparing to leave.
“Whatever the reason, she needs to find another place to live. Neither L.C. nor I wanted to fall asleep with this excuse of a door. One hard kick would knock it in. This place is a shit hole. I can’t believe you gave up your room at the club to move in here.”
“It’s just temporary.” Doom shrugged. “I’ve slept in worse places. You get the cleaning supplies I asked for?”
L.C. gestured toward the small kitchenette. “On the counter. I bought some rat traps, too, which I already set out for you.”
Seeing the two brothers were anxious to leave, he tossed Cyrus his motorcycle keys. “Take my bike. I’m going to need your car for the next few days.”
Cyrus snagged the keys, looking toward the thin door. “She hasn’t left her apartment this weekend. You going to catch some sleep?”
Doom glanced at his watch. “It’s after three a.m.; I’m just going to clean until Arden leaves in the morning for her regular job.”
Both Cyrus and L.C. gave him troubled expressions.
“If we didn’t have to be at the construction site, one of us would stay to have your six.” L.C. bent down to open a small drawer in the new end table to show the 9mm inside before sliding it closed.
“I brought mine, but thanks for the spare. I sleep light, so anyone who tries to break in won’t get a foot in the door,” Doom assured them, not taking offense. Cyrus and L.C. were always concerned about safety. It was what made them so damn good at their jobs, and why Wizard allowed them leeway about attending church meetings.
Doom shut the door behind them without bothering to lock the flimsy lock. Jesus, what in the fuck was Arden doing living here?
Rolling up the sleeves of his Henley, he went to the box that masqueraded as a kitchen. He took out the cleaning supplies and got to work washing down the counters and appliances. He pulled out the drawers to scrub down the worn, fake wood before moving on to the cabinet shelves.
He had learned to clean from watching his mother at an early age. Watching the delight on her face when she had come home from working and found a clean apartment made him feel as if he had lightened the load she carried by being their lone provider.
His mom had worked tirelessly to keep a roof over their heads after his father had left them for another woman when he was thirteen months old. He had watched his mom go through two more failed marriages before he was seven. His two stepfathers had started with showering his mom with gifts and promises, only to take their gifts back before leaving her with nothing but broken promises.
After her third failed marriage, she had quit bringing men home to meet him, yet he could tell from her attitude when she would meet someone she was interested in. Then the date nights would begin, when she would find a sitter to stay the night with him. For a few months, Doom would get his hopes up, along with his mother, that maybe this time, she had found the mysterious one whom she could find true happiness with… Until she would come home with tears running down her cheeks and knew another man had let her down.
By the time he was fourteen, going to school during the day and working at a grocery store, bagging groceries, in the evening to make enough money to pay the rent on their apartment to lessen the load his mom had been carrying his whole life, he had lost count of the number of times she had cried on his shoulder. That was when he was determined to never be the kind of man who couldn’t keep his promises to a woman.