Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 133849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 669(@200wpm)___ 535(@250wpm)___ 446(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 669(@200wpm)___ 535(@250wpm)___ 446(@300wpm)
Josh sighed. He’d known this discussion was coming from the moment Nic mentioned she’d met Harlow. “Harlow wants to talk to me. To us, really. I think she’s found something and wants to update us. I know she was waiting for a call. I told her we could have breakfast tomorrow. I’ll find out what’s going on then.”
Though he rather hoped Nicole would tell them everything tonight. The words I love you had come out of her mouth earlier, and he believed her. It felt like they were finally on steady ground.
Grim didn’t seem as sure. “I know you talked to her about looking into the situation, but I thought we were keeping it light. If Harlow came all the way to Austin, she’s serious about this.”
Josh’s head shook. “She’s found something, but I’m not worried about it. We talked about this. We need to know what’s coming for her. Even if she’s not ready for us to know. We can’t protect her if we’re in the dark.”
“Just make sure Harlow knows the parameters of her assignment. It’s not to fucking scare her off.” Grim sighed and sank down to the big sofa where they would likely be all cuddled up and watching movies at some point. There was a big screen TV with all the streaming services they could want. “You know Harlow can get territorial about her friends,” Grim pointed out. “If she finds out something about Nic she considers bad, she might take things into her own hands.”
Josh shook his head. “I don’t think so. At least not without talking to me. I’m pretty sure that’s precisely why she’s here. Do you want me to call her? We’ve got some time before we go down and get Nicole. We can find out what Harlow has on her.”
Grim’s head shook. “I would rather wait for Nic to tell us. I think she’s close. It would be better if she never knows you asked someone to look into her at all. It’ll be a breach of trust. I think she might tell us tonight.”
“I do, too, but maybe we should talk about how to react. Our reactions to whatever secret she has will be everything. All right. Let’s throw it around.” Josh put a hand to his chest, his eyes lowering, and he gave his best Nicole impression. “Grim, I have a secret baby.”
Grim’s eyes rolled. “Take this seriously.”
Josh chuckled. He was actually feeling pretty good. The sex had burned away his anxiety, but he knew Grim carried around a lot of it. “I am. I promise you. There’s nothing in the world I take more seriously than our woman. But I want you to think. What could she tell us that would make us turn our backs on her?”
Grim shook his head. “I don’t know. I want to say there’s nothing, but the world can sometimes kick you in the ass. You don’t understand that the way I do. The way Nic does.”
He wasn’t about to argue over his place of privilege. He knew Grim was speaking the truth. He’d had a great life and life had kicked Grim and Nic around. Precisely why he needed to protect them both. Especially from their own fears. “If she tells us she’s on the run from a husband who abused her?”
In his head, it was the most obvious possibility. She cried out in her sleep asking someone to stop. That someone was likely a male partner. If she’d lied about her divorce, he would be happy to make it a truth for her.
“Then we hunt the son of a bitch down and he won’t hurt her again,” Grim replied as though he kind of liked the idea.
Josh did, too. But there were other scenarios churning through his head. “How about I have a couple of kids out there and I’m protecting them from someone who wants to hurt them?”
“Well, I would hope she wants more because I would like that, but I would accept whatever she is willing to give me, and I would love her kids.” Grim seemed to relax.
This was how to relieve his stress. Grim needed to run through things. He needed plans. His world had been chaotic for so long. A lot like Nicole’s. Josh knew how to be the calm center of things. His fathers had taught him. Even when the world seemed out of control, the key was to not panic. Panic was the enemy. Not fear, and fear was what they were facing. Fear of the unknown. Fear of losing her. “If she’s done something and the law’s after her?”
“We fix it.” Grim sounded so much calmer now. “If we can’t, then we run with her.”
“Then we run with her.” His decision was made. Though he was fairly certain he could deal with whatever was thrown his way without taking up the hobo life. Money could solve a world of troubles. It could buy the best lawyers. His connections afforded him the finest hackers who could build an identity to protect her. “It’s not going to come to that.”