Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 69001 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69001 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Laric’s arm tightened around my back, and he pulled me more solidly toward him as he said, “Home.”
A throat cleared from behind us, and I grinned into Laric’s hard chest.
“Uh, Laric. Nice to see you again,” Chastity said carefully. “I, uh, didn’t know that you had a fiancée.”
Laric’s hand on my back moved, and ever so slightly I felt his fingertips brush my ass as he pulled me in closer. “Uh, yeah. For a…”
“Year,” I coughed into my hand.
“Yeah,” he confirmed, his voice sounding slightly choked. “A year.”
Chastity’s face twisted into something like disgust.
“So…” Laric said carefully, his mouth thinning into a line as he stared at her. “How are you?”
Though Laric’s words were perfectly polite, I could sense an undertone of anger. Resentment. Pissiness that had me looking at him more closely.
Luckily, we were all saved by Chastity’s name being called.
When she waved and disappeared without another word, I slumped into Laric’s chest, relishing in the way he felt surrounding me a long, unrestrained moment before reluctantly pulling away when Laric’s phone rang.
His fingers lingered on my hips for long seconds before I tilted my head back and stared at him.
“I’ll be fine if you want to take that,” I suggested, tilting my head in the direction of his phone that was on the seat next to him.
Laric’s eyes were hot as he nodded his chin and took my good hand as he led me out of the building.
“Did you make an appointment for next week?” he asked.
I grimaced. “That was the first thing I did. If I’d known, I’d have not made another one.”
He chuckled as he placed the phone to his ear.
Together, we walked to the truck, hand in hand.
It was only as he was hanging up his phone, his phone call very strange to listen to on my end because it had a lot of ‘did you get it taken down’ and ‘I want to sue her.’
I was curious what had gone down, but more so, I was curious because he looked even madder than he had been when he’d seen Chastity.
“I have to tell you something.” I swallowed hard, a sickness hitting my gut at the knowledge of what I was about to share. “Umm, Chastity. Your ex?”
His hand tightened on the steering wheel. “Yes.”
“She, uh…” I squeezed my eyes tightly shut. Then, I did the impossible, and blurted every single little detail of what I’d seen when he’d been in the video. “I can, uh, find it for you.”
He squeezed my hand, his face softening slightly. “You told me about it the day of your drugs escapade. I’ve already handled it.” He paused. “Though, if I’d known that Chastity worked at that particular rehab hospital, you can bet your ass you wouldn’t have gone there.”
Warmth suffused my body at his words.
“That was what that phone call was about,” he continued. “Me taking care of business. Criminal charges were filed on her today.”
He frowned hard.
“What?” I asked.
“I’m just worried it’s not going to go anywhere,” he admitted, coming to a stop at a stop sign that bisected two high-speed roads. “She’s a pretty prominent woman in the community, and I’m an ex-con. I just don’t want this to go the way of nasty. But I think she needs to be charged, to the max. Just because I’m a man, doesn’t mean that the shit she did to me wasn’t very much real.”
I agreed with him wholeheartedly. “I can go burn her house down for you. Maybe she’ll take the hint and leave.”
He looked at me, thinking I was joking, but I wasn’t.
I was very much serious in that moment. “You and Six will get along famously.”
I didn’t know who Six was, but I was sure that I would like her as long as Laric did.
CHAPTER 11
Don’t let anyone tell you you’re ugly. You are, but don’t let anyone tell you.
-Bruno to Laric
CATORI
I met ‘Six’ ten minutes later.
When we pulled up in front of a restaurant called Armadillo Willies, I’d smiled at the name.
That smile had slid off my face when I saw the massive group of bikers, all wearing the same thing that Laric had on his shoulders, staring back at me.
“We’re going to lunch with your family?” I asked, looking at the very large men standing at the entrance of the building.
Instead of answering, he got out of the truck and walked around to my side to help me down.
When my feet hit the ground, I groaned.
Now that I wasn’t actively working out my shoulder, the pain was starting to get to me.
I needed a pain pill, but there was no way in hell I was taking one with an entire group of bikers there to hear what I did or didn’t say.
“You’re nervous?” he asked, misreading the grimace on my face.
“No.” I shook my head, causing a streak of pain to shoot up the length of my neck. “I hurt. Why would I be nervous?”