Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 69511 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69511 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
“If she’s here when you finally deign to talk to her,” Quincy grumbled, gathering his shit off the side table.
“She’ll be here,” I continued to defend.
“Sure,” he said. “And the sky is green.”
I didn’t reply because Callena pushed through the room.
Callena and I had been working in tandem to take down the assholes in the motorcycle gang.
Callena knew the score.
Sure, she wanted me.
But that didn’t mean that we couldn’t work together professionally. I wasn’t a slave to my baser instincts.
After she got into the room, I explained to her and Tyrone exactly what happened in the altercation with Darryl Horton.
While we spoke and discussed the options, my family listened from outside the door, growing more and more worried by the minute.
I was worried as hell, too.
Darryl Horton had just told me that my brother had a hit on his head due to an uprising in an old gang he used to be undercover with.
Garrett’s face was blank as he listened to us talk, and by the time I was finished having my side sewn up—eighteen stitches—I was really worried about him.
“Maven had her baby!” Mom cried.
The nurse handed me my discharge papers, and I said, “I’ll catch a ride with y’all to the station.”
“You’re not going to come meet Lola?” Dad asked.
I was already shaking my head. “Not right now. I’ll be back to see her when I’m done at the station. I want to get some stuff figured out with the hit before I go up there.”
“What about Athena?” she asked. “You’re not going to show her that you’re all right?”
I would.
Later.
When I wasn’t so fucking mad at her and thought I could control myself.
“Not right now,” I admitted.
Dad snorted. “Take Garrett with you. The two of you figure it out and get back here.”
We did that, and I tried really hard not to turn left down the hallway to see Athena instead of taking a right and heading to the parking lot.
My side smarted as I tensed my abs.
Garrett noticed the wince and said, “Are you sure we should be going down there right now?”
“Yes,” I said as I glanced at him. “This is a bounty on your head, Garrett.”
He looked away. “It’s my shit to deal with.”
I ignored him.
“You’re using me as an excuse to not talk to her,” he said as we walked.
“Her who?” Callena asked.
“The woman my dumbass brother loves,” Garrett said.
“What?” Callena asked.
“Is it that cute little Asian I saw you walking around with at the station?” Tyrone asked.
I shot him a glare. “Athena.”
He held up his hands. “Sorry, but she was cute. I can’t help it.”
She was cute.
“Go back inside, Gable,” Garrett said. “I’ll take it from here.”
I looked at him, feeling a pull going both directions.
“She needs you after today,” he said. “You’ve stalled long enough. Just go tell her she scared the hell out of you.”
“I think he should go with us,” Callena admitted.
She would.
“He’s going back to his girl,” Garrett disagreed. “Go.”
I went, but only after I made eye contact with Tyrone to watch out for my brother.
He gave me a nod of understanding, and I headed back into the hospital just as a black sedan pulled in that said ‘Uber’ on it.
I skirted myself around it and headed toward the employee entrance, using my code to get in the door and head up to the maternity ward.
I’d been there a lot thanks to all my siblings giving me niblings—nieces and nephews—so it didn’t take me long.
I was surprised to find the entire room, and hallway, overfilled with people.
I shouldered my way past everyone and took a look around the room for Athena but spotted her nowhere.
I moved toward Maven and Auden. Maven was glaring.
And, surprisingly, so was Auden.
My stomach dropped. “Where is she?”
“She’s not here, Gable.” Maven crossed her arms over her chest. “She left when you made it clear you didn’t want her here.”
I was already shaking my head. “That’s most certainly not what I meant. I wanted to talk to Callena.”
“Meanwhile,” Maven rolled her eyes, “Athena has been here for four hours worried sick about you. And you couldn’t make a stop up here and alleviate her worries before you took off?”
I was already shaking my head. “I never made it out of the parking lot.”
“Well, when Athena didn’t find you here, she decided to go home,” she snapped.
I sighed.
“I’m sorry. But Garrett…” I couldn’t stop the fear leeching into my voice. “I can’t lose him again.”
Maven’s shoulders softened. “What did I tell you about putting Athena first?”
That no one had ever done it before.
Fuck.
“I’ll go find her,” I promised.
Except it proved harder than it looked.
I went to her house first.
Then her brother’s, which was still covered in crime scene tape.
I then went to mine, hoping beyond hope that she would be there, but didn’t find her there, either.