Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 61746 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 309(@200wpm)___ 247(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61746 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 309(@200wpm)___ 247(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
“They’re lucky to have all of you too. So am I,” Madison pointed out as she smiled up at him, leaning into his side.
Ti gazed at her for a few seconds, and I swore I saw his eyes glisten slightly. Ti was one of the most guarded people I knew, and if that wasn’t proof enough that Madison was special to us, I didn’t know what was. He chuckled and blinked a few times.
“We’ll have to introduce them to my little creatures early on so that they’re not petrified of them like Gus,” he said as he flashed a smirk at the large man.
“They’re creepy,” Gus replied as he screwed his face up.
Madison gave Ti a sheepish look.
“They are a little creepy, baby,” she admitted, making the others laugh.
Ti clicked his tongue in disappointment and swiped Chloe from Bryce.
“Well, this brave little lady isn’t afraid of Shadow,” he replied before carrying Chloe off so that she could ogle at his creatures he obsessively cared for. There was no one else I trusted to have Chloe around spiders, little snakes, and other creatures.
“Him and his creatures,” Taj chuckled as he stepped closer to Madison. “We’ll go out and pick up whatever you need to make you comfortable. Weird foods. Fluffy socks. Whatever.”
Madison laughed softly.
“I’m sure I’ll let you know when I start getting cravings. Thank you,” she assured him as she rested her hand on his arm over his peacock tattoo. Her eyes fluttered shut for a second as he kissed her forehead.
It had been a minute since I had seen her look so happy and carefree, and the last thing I wanted to do was ruin this incredible moment that I would treasure forever.
But trouble was coming, and we needed to be prepared, especially since there was a baby on the way.
“Madison,” I said, making her turn and look at me. When she saw the serious look on her face, her smile melted into a frown as she nodded a little, knowing what I wanted to talk about. I looked at the others as they gravitated closer so that Chloe didn’t overhear from Ti’s station. “We need to go after Michael. We can’t wait for him to come to us.”
“What are we going to do?” Madison asked with a worried look on her face, her hand instinctively resting on her stomach.
My gaze followed her hand, and anger started to burn through me when I thought about what all Michael wanted to take away and destroy. He was the one who deserved to go down, which meant me and the guys had to shift our moral stance for the time being. We all tried to be good, kind upstanding citizens, but Michael was forcing our hands.
“I have some ideas, and you guys probably won’t like them.”
Chapter 25
Baker
With my teeth grinding, I hovered over my laptop in the living room of Marlo’s house.
I sat on the edge of his leather couch, my eyebrows knitting as my fingers flew over my keyboard. I could hear the guys and Madison laughing in the kitchen as they worked on baking a chocolate cake for Chloe’s birthday with green frosting, as requested by the soon-to-be seven-year-old at three o’clock today.
I wanted to be there with them right now, but Marlo enlisted me with a very important task that forced me to tap into some of my past behavior. I graduated college with a computer science major, and I even took extra classes to have a minor in finance.
When it came to numbers and computers, I knew them like the back of my hand, but I was an idiot back then. I used my knowledge to help bad people acquire a range of illegal substances because they jumped on the poor, smart kid who was struggling to find a job after graduation to pay off his student debt.
I regretted the path I took every single day, and I was a bit wary of hacking into Michael’s email account to go digging around for dirt. Marlo was right about me not liking this plan, but if it helped Madison, I would do it because I would do anything for my family.
“Let’s see what you’re hiding,” I muttered beneath my breath as I went to Michael’s sent emails to see what he had been up to lately.
At first, I didn’t find anything that had much value. Political planning. Responses to his assistant. Nothing that we could use.
Until I found an email that contained a list of donors, whether they donated to him in the past or for his present campaign. There were a lot of names, but I skimmed through them anyway just in case something caught my eye. As I reached the middle of the list, I started to lose hope that I’d actually find something, but one name caught my eye.