Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69352 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 277(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69352 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 277(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
And, seeing as Granddad wasn’t willing to miss much of any of his activities, not even to meet his grandson’s wife, he’d yet to meet her.
Though, we had plans to join him at pickleball tomorrow, according to Keely and Milena—who’d become fast friends a couple of days ago after meeting.
I’d decided that it was their common history.
They both had bonded over their overprotective brothers, how their lives had changed, and how much they wished that their family could see them as people, and not as victims.
Truthfully, it’d taken Milena explaining things to me to understand.
She wasn’t hung up on anything anymore.
She’d figured out how to navigate life after the unthinkable had happened to her, and she wanted to be able to live. And we—Chevy, Copper, Shasha, Dima, and I—hadn’t been giving them the freedom they needed to live their lives.
We’d been holding on so tightly with both hands that we hadn’t realized that they’d overcome and persevered.
But now, I was giving that freedom to Keely, and I would work hard to try to convince my brothers—and Milena’s—to do the same.
“Oh, hey, darlin’,” Granddad said. “How are you?”
Milena grinned at me and said, “I’m doing really good. Trying out my new coffee machine today. Would you like some coffee?”
“Oh, I’d love some dear.” He paused. “Hey, can you tell my grandson I might need some help for a bit?”
I screwed in the shelf, then fastened it to the other wall with more screws, before I said, “What did you do, Granddad?”
There was a pause and then, “Oh, nothing, nothing,” he declared. “I just need you here to clear up a few things.”
“Where is here?” I asked.
“Oh, I’m at Sunny’s,” he said. “The place just down the road from your wife’s coffee shop.”
I looked at Milena and raised a brow.
She held up her finger and said, “Granddad, we’ll be right there.”
I sighed and walked out with Milena to the bike.
“Come on,” I said. “I get in your car, and I’m gonna get it disgusting.”
“But what if your granddad needs a ride back here?” she asked.
“Then we’ll figure it out,” I pointed out.
She hopped onto the back of my bike, and I handed her the helmet that I’d purchased just for her only a day ago.
She pulled it onto her head, and I adjusted my own helmet, before we took off.
Granddad was right. It was only a bit down the road.
Milena pointed over my shoulder at the small diner, and I pulled into the parking lot, unsurprised to find a crowd.
“What is going on?” Milena asked.
“I need you to go inside,” I said. “Stand in the windows so I can see you.”
She bit her lip but didn’t argue, which I was happy for.
She didn’t go all the way inside, though. Instead, she went into the small vestibule area that had another set of doors that would lead you inside.
She stayed in that small glass room and stared, but kept the door cracked so she could hear what was happening.
I walked up to the crowd of people, unsurprised to find my granddad and his cronies—three older men that were also Vietnam vets—at his side.
“You the ‘dolphin trainer’?” one man asked.
I eyed his cut, seeing it said ‘Crazy Motherfuckers’ on it.
Original.
I looked at my grandfather and said, “Again? Really?”
He shrugged.
I pinched the bridge of my nose and closed my eyes, uncaring that I’d semi-turned my back on the men that were obviously a problem.
Even now, I heard the bikes arriving.
I didn’t go anywhere without backup, and as we were leaving, I sent a mass text to the club, asking for a little backup if they were in the area.
I wasn’t sure who’d responded, but it didn’t matter. All of them could handle themselves. And I trusted all of them with my life.
“Granddad, what the fuck did I tell you about calling me a dolphin trainer?”
“Well, aren’t you?” he asked.
“I was…” I let go of the bridge of my nose. “Training SEALS. Not dolphins.”
“Oh, yeah.” He giggled, shrugging. “It’s not like these men would really understand, anyway. It’s not like they have any brain cells to rub together.”
He knew damn well what I used to do.
There was a shuffle of feet behind me, and I just knew one of the men that’d been at my back had lost their patience.
I shifted, putting my back to the brick pillar behind me, but didn’t have to make a move because there was an angry cop there blocking the path.
“I think not.”
Auden Carter, Milena’s sister’s old man.
Fuck, I hated having a cop in the family.
Cops were such buzzkills.
The bikes were so close now that I knew they were parking in the middle of the parking lot, ready to leap off at any possible signs of distress.
“And who the fuck do you think you are?” the first man to address me asked Auden. “You’re one lone cop in a sea of bikers.”