Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 148220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 741(@200wpm)___ 593(@250wpm)___ 494(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 148220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 741(@200wpm)___ 593(@250wpm)___ 494(@300wpm)
My dog does. I hush Daisy’s urgent whining and lead her downstairs, opening the side door to let her out. Anna’s already up and in her kitchen, banging cupboards. Shit. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what set off her temper.
I open the door that leads from the stairwell to her kitchen and close it behind me. “Want to cool it for a bit? Maxine is still sleeping.”
And that’s the first time I’ve said her name. Maxine.
Fits her a whole lot better than Cherry.
Anna shoots me a look that’s pure poison and slams her kettle onto a burner. Loud as fuck, but her voice is a low hiss. “I can’t fucking believe you brought that girl here. You never bring anyone home. And when you do, it’s that one?”
“And you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” I tell her gently, because my sister’s low view of Maxine is my own damn fault.
In sweat shorts and bare feet, Gunner comes into the kitchen. He gives me a single assessing glance before stopping behind Anna, leaning down to kiss her neck and to murmur something into her ear. And…yeah, that’s a change. Holy shit. Knew it had happened between them. Seeing it is something different.
This ain’t the first time we’ve all been in this kitchen together. Far from it. Yet always before, I was the link to both while they each pretended there was no link simmering between them. It was just Anna, my sister—and Gunner, my brother. But now, they’ve got their own link that doesn’t have a damn thing to do with me. Something that puts me outside of what they are together.
All good. But it thumps me right in the feels.
Whatever it was Gunner said to her, Anna takes a deep breath. Then another. Settling down.
But emotion is still thick in her voice as she turns toward me. It’s just worry now instead of anger.
Because that’s all the anger was, anyway. Just worry.
“What don’t I know?” she asks in a carefully even tone.
Gunner doesn’t know, either. Not yet. When I brought Maxine home around four a.m, he woke up and came to check on me, but we didn’t stop to chat.
So I tell them both. About Hatchet, who he really was, and what Maxine learned last night. By the time the coffee’s ready, Anna’s sitting at the table with Gunner rubbing his hand up and down her back, and my sister’s lost all her anger.
“Holy shit,” she says quietly. “That poor girl.”
“Maxine.” I fucking love saying it. “Maxine Faraday.”
Gunner narrows his eyes. “What about the business last night?”
With Creek. “Finding out about her brother changed things up.”
They both know me too well to doubt the rest, but my sister asks anyway, “Changed them up for her or for you?”
“For her.” Learning about her brother didn’t change anything for me. Except knowing she was hurting so bad made me face square on what I was trying hard not to see, and ripped away the blinders concealing how much she means to me.
“What next?” Gunner asks.
“Find Papa.” I say it in front of Anna because this isn’t club business anymore. Instead it’s personal. “Finish it.”
My brother nods, slides back his chair. “I’ll get ready.”
“No.” I stop him. “Just Maxine and me.”
Gunner shakes his head and Anna’s already protesting before he says, “Hold up, brother—”
“She’s in a real bad place,” I talk over them. “Angry, hurt. So I’m going to help her.”
Anna leans in, voice low. “Just a wild guess, but killing a man is not the kind of help she needs.”
“I know it.”
And it ain’t the kind of help I’ll give. Creek wasn’t wrong. Her need to kill Papa is rage and grief talking.
If it comes to it, I’ll kill Papa. But let Maxine do it—or even see it? Not a chance. Not a woman who said she almost puked while trying to psych herself up to kill a guard, even though it meant winning her own freedom. Not a woman who quietly cried over every man she saw killed in the Cage. Killing Papa would hurt her more than she already is hurting. So she shouldn’t be killing anyone.
But if hunting him down is what she needs, if that’s how her grief and rage are talking, then I’ll let her scream that rage and grief until she’s done screaming.
Anna sighs and leans back. “And whenever there’s a girl in trouble—”
“No,” I tell her. Maybe once upon a time, that might have been true. It isn’t now. “This isn’t like that.”
They both know me well enough to see what that means, too. That she’s a hell of a lot more than just a girl in trouble to me.
“Aw, fuck.” Gunner rubs his hand over his face. “Let me come with you. I don’t want to see you hurt.”