Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 112249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Cars had been pushed into the river before.
A beating happened, once.
In almost every case, Frankie Beau believed intimidation worked. It kept people out of his and his church’s business. There could be consequences for those who dared to look what was beneath the smiling, beautiful veneer.
“One has to be careful with all of that, though,” Sonny added under is breath. “How I’ve gotten this far with Alora is a miracle, Malachi. From second one, it’s been chaperones and his rules. Don’t worry—Frankie’s made it known to me what happens if I step out of line.”
Sonny confirmed a lot of Malachi’s suspicions about his sister’s current predicament and the underlying motive to her upcoming marriage. And didn’t even know he did so.
“I’ve got half-sisters I’ve never met,” Malachi noted. “I bet he’s pissed I’m back in town.”
“Just ... don’t provoke it?”
“Didn’t you say my sister wanted to see me?” Malachi asked, trying to wrap his mind around how that would work. His stepfather controlled his family even more than he did his congregation if possible. If Frankie didn’t want Malachi around his children, adult or not, the man would find a way to make it happen.
“She’s not an angel,” Sonny repeated. Only that time, making the point clear when he met Malachi’s stare. “There are ways to make things work, if that’s what a person has to do.”
Jesus Christ.
So little truly had changed.
The whole place was still a shithole.
“You know, I really hate reading between the lines,” he bitched under his breath.
“Yeah, well ...” Sonny nodded once. “She wants a life outside of this town, too. Away from him. All of it. Alora, I me—”
“I know who you mean.”
“If you really gave a shit,” Sonny told Malachi with another easy, unbothered shrug, “you could help with that, man.”
The better question now was how to make it happen.
“Don’t park the bike there again,” Sonny said as he turned to head back the way he’d first came, “and otherwise, maybe don’t start unnecessary trouble.”
“About Alora,” Malachi returned to the man’s retreating back.
Sonny didn’t turn around as he reached the front doors, but he did stop long enough to listen.
“I’ll text you, so you’ll have my number,” he finished.
“Got it, big brother.”
Stupid fuck.
Who was being the prick now?
Chapter 10
Gracen heard the rumble of what she thought was a familiar engine only a few seconds before Margot’s question.
“Were you still doing walk-ins?” Margot asked.
Gracen paused, half under her workstation with a trash bag clenched in her hand. “No, the schedule is usually booked straight through.”
Straightening up to hand over the bag for Margot to take, Gracen noticed the scene Delaney wasn’t even trying to hide across the salon. Pointing with both hands toward the windows overlooking their parking lot and the river across the street, Delaney clearly mouthed to Margot, “That’s him—that’s the guy!”
Gracen didn’t even need to check on who Delaney was attempting to point out to Margot. There had only been one person whom her friends had constantly prodded Gracen for more information about while whispering their opinions and assumptions when her back was turned. Not that Delaney or Margot did so with any real malice. Gracen didn’t give them much of a choice but to talk about a guy—and a hookup—she basically refused to discuss.
Mostly because there wasn’t anything to tell.
Honestly.
Malachi hadn’t checked in—and never dropped off that coffee he promised, either—in almost a week. With her Sunday looking busy because Gracen had a special someone to make up to for her previous no-show the week before, she couldn’t say it mattered that Malachi did a disappearing act. Her work week kept her distracted; it was only her friends that wouldn’t let Malachi go.
“Could you not?” Gracen asked Delaney without a lick of heat in her voice.
Delaney, who had turned her back to Margot and Gracen, couldn’t hide the trembling in her shoulders as she poorly hid her laughter. “No offense, but this is the most exciting thing to happen here this week.”
“She’s not wrong,” Margot put in, before checking over her shoulder to survey the problem who had recently pulled into the parking lot.
The problem Gracen had refused to acknowledge.
Fifteen minutes after closing, it wasn’t like she needed to rush to deal with the leather-wearing, motorcycle-riding issue outside. The cleaning of the place and closing of the cash had already been done. Margot finished by grabbing the small trash bags on the bottom floor while Delaney and Gracen had been tidying their stations. Even the wash—a load of crisp, white towels—was nearly done drying in the back room.
Finally, Gracen peered over Margot’s shoulder to get a view of the parking lot outside the windows. As it seemed, Malachi had already parked and got off his bike, letting his black helmet hang from one handlebar while he leaned against the machine as if he had all the time in the world.