Total pages in book: 165
Estimated words: 154925 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154925 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
“She does,” West replied. “I’ll leave when she tells me to, but even then I won’t go far. You’re right. My brother is also my boss, and until he tells me to stand down, I’m not leaving her for anything but a bullet through my heart.”
“That can be arranged,” Kyle swore.
They were staring each other down like angry bulls.
Testosterone. It made the world an angrier place. It fueled so much boy drama.
This was why she enjoyed life online. If this was happening online, she could tap out and let them play their boy games. She wouldn’t be forced to deal with them. She could be online right now. There was a raid on a castle scheduled in about half an hour. She could slide her headset on and then these two could do whatever they liked and she could talk to Kraven, who was the only dude in the world who seemed to get her these days. She kind of pictured him as some fifty-plus dad of four who was trying to get away from his life as an accountant. He gave her sound dad advice.
Play it safe. Always be careful.
Are you sure you’re ready to date? You should give yourself plenty of time. There’s no reason for you to push yourself.
And she often took his advice because she was pretty sure he was involved with another man. He never talked about a woman in his life, but a couple of times she’d heard a man yelling at him to get off that computer and join him for whatever unintelligible words he would say at that point because Kraven knew how to mute a mic.
She wondered if he was online. She could ask him how he would handle two guys who didn’t care about her but were acting like they did because they were assholes.
She wasn’t being fair. Not to West, at least.
“You’re barely able to protect yourself,” Kyle was growling.
“You have no idea what I’m capable of,” West growled right back. “But I could be convinced to show you.”
She needed a beer.
Mae started down the hall, leaving the boys behind. Oh, she was absolutely certain that in her past life she would have thrown herself between those two overgrown toddlers and begged them not to fight. She would have pleaded for them to understand each other, and couldn’t they all sit down and talk this out?
Yeah, she did not have time for that now. If they wrecked her room, she would have some balls hanging from Tiny’s rearview mirror come tomorrow, though. She’d just gotten back to her own room in her own apartment.
And she’d already been assaulted by a hundred memories of nights Kyle had spent here. They’d sat at her game table and played for hours and hours. Sometimes with friends. Sometimes alone together.
He’d burned place-and-bake cookies in her kitchen once because he’d found out she had a sweet tooth and Noelle had made baking sound fun.
He’d sat beside her on her couch and let her lean on him while watching Stranger Things for the tenth time because she’d found out on social media that her father had thrown a huge sweet sixteen for her stepsister and she’d been left out again.
She could have handled him walking away if all they’d done was have sex. But they’d had months and months of building what she’d thought was a genuine friendship, a strong foundation for a real relationship.
The fact that he could walk away from that meant there was no hope for them.
She made it to the kitchen and opened the fridge, praising Hutch’s name because there was a six-pack of Shiner sitting there. It had been months since she’d been allowed in her apartment. She’d gone from guest room to guest room, staying at friend’s places while she was training to be able to protect herself. So when she’d finally been cleared to head home—with a guard in tow—Hutch and his wife, Noelle, had been kind enough to make sure she didn’t come home to an empty fridge.
Her eyes caught on the bottle of Sriracha. It had been sitting there in the middle of her kitchen island like someone had left it as a present. She loved it, put it on pretty much everything she could. When they’d been together Kyle had made fun of her because he couldn’t stand it. But he’d always made sure she had it. So much so that he’d carried a small bottle in the backpack he used. Once they’d been in a fancy restaurant where the waiter had looked at her like she was crazy to ask for the condiment. Kyle had pulled it out and she’d made that pasta as spicy as she’d liked.
Hutch hadn’t left that bottle for her. He would have put it in the pantry. He wouldn’t have carefully placed it on the middle of the island where the light would shine down on it, announcing the arrival of spice back in her life.