Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 103637 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103637 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Still upset over them disappearing on her last night, she clearly wanted her little brother to move on. And she’d been right in suggesting it would never happen if Mike stayed in Arden’s life.
“If you have any issues. Anyone stalking you, or just being a douche, you let me know. Promise,” Mike whispered.
Arden stepped back, his eyes full of unsaid emotion. “I promise. No one’s gonna fuck with me from now on. Look at my guns.” He flexed his biceps which, while less skinny than three months ago, were still barely a curve under the skin.
Kaley snorted. “There, there, Schwarzenegger, let’s go.”
Mike squeezed Arden’s hand and led him to her car in the eerie silence of the early morning. The commuters were already away, but the town seemed asleep, and only the wind howled above, carrying away the dust from Mike’s heart.
“Have a good life. You deserve everything.”
Arden opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something more but then just rolled into the passenger’s seat. Kaley gave Mike a sparse wave, but once she started the engine, Arden looked back at Mike like a puppy being taken to the pound.
His eyes begged keep me, but Mike didn’t know whether he’d survive another ordeal like the one with Leah. Parting was best for both of them, even if Arden didn’t understand it yet. So he smiled, waved, and watched his boy disappear from sight. Out of his life, forever.
Several moments passed until Mike was certain he could no longer see his kitten, and he slid back into the compound, closing the gate behind him. All he wanted was some bourbon to kickstart this first miserable day without Arden.
He should’ve felt relieved that the responsibility of caring for him was over, but instead all he could think of was that he wouldn’t be there to protect Arden if someone were rude to him because of his looks, or when a guy tried to hook up with him, or in the millions of situations that might put Arden in danger. He lived his life so boldly, dressing in a way that could attract violence, and Mike hated to think that one day someone might hurt Arden for just being himself.
Mike’s stomach clenched with anxiety even as he poured the bourbon in. Didn’t he have a heart of steel? He’d killed someone last night for fuck’s sake. Yet here he was, a ball of stress and sadness.
This would pass. It had to.
“Impersonating Sailor Moon?” Rain asked, appearing by the empty bar out of nowhere to poke him with an elbow. How did she manage to sneak up on him with all the bottles, cans, and other trash littering the floor after last night’s party? Come to think of it, it was kinda weird the hangarounds hadn’t taken care of it all yet.
“Huh?”
She raised her eyebrows. “The nails—never mind.”
“Just… Arden’s idea,” Mike said, trying to focus on the now as he walked behind the counter, where Arden had blown him that first time. He needed something between him and his nosy sister, regardless of her intentions.
Rain snorted but watched him with the sharpness of a razor slicing his brain open for dissection. “Do you even know how to get it off?”
Mike closed his eyes when the sharp liquid burned its way down his throat. “Don’t know. Don’t care.”
Rain’s face fell. What was her expression? Pity? “Mike, come on. It can’t be that bad…”
“What is it to you? Don’t you have a pretty young wife and kids to bother?” Mike grunted and turned away from her, toward the broken mirror still miraculously sitting in its frame. “I don’t wanna talk about it.”
Rain’s reflection frowned and started tapping something on her phone. “Well, we think you should fucking talk about it, because you’ve been sulking all week and no one knows what to do with you anymore.”
“Fine. I’ll just take a vacation and go camping somewhere in Washington state if it bothers you so much,” Mike said and grabbed a little bag of peanuts from a drawer in a cupboard next to the bar before walking to his favorite leather chair, which offered an excellent view of the stripper poles. He hadn’t sat here in ages. Maybe that’s what he should do? Visit all the stripper bars in Reno and drink until he forgot about Arden?
The moment he considered that scenario, his brain whispered that he might as well pop in to Arden’s for a courtesy visit. And if he wasn’t home, Mike would likely stumble upon him by accident at the strip joint Kaley worked in.
He frowned when people started pouring into the empty bar. And not just hangarounds on a late clean-up quest. His dad, mom, Leo, Axel, Jack… they all headed straight for him, grabbing chairs on the way. The fuck was this?