Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 78364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
He huffed out a breath. “Whatever. If that lady hadn’t passed out when we were going through those really tight spaces, it would have been fine.”
Three hundred feet underground, carrying another human being, was not my idea of a good time. “The Knott’s Berry Farm thing in California,” I reminded him.
“That was how we found out you had an inner-ear infection after you did all that barfing,” he said, trying not to laugh. “I stand by that decision.”
I groaned as more people came for their kids. When they were all collected except Stella, the three of us went upstairs to find Hayden, Davis, Hayden’s folks, and Keith in the kitchen.
“Okay, kid, time to go to bed,” I told Stella.
Instant panic, you could see it on her face. Logically, she knew Stoker was gone, but she was tired now, even though she wouldn’t admit it, and her anxiety was in full control.
“You know,” I said, gesturing for Keith, “I bet your dad would let you sleep in his room with him tonight if you wanted.”
She immediately turned to him.
He rushed over and went down on one knee next to his girl. “That’s what I was talking about earlier. We should have a sleepover.”
Studying his face for a moment, she slowly leaned into him, wrapping her little arms around his neck and squeezing.
I saw him shudder, he was so happy.
“Okay, so we’ll see ya in the morning,” I said, prodding him to move, and when Keith looked up at me, I nodded.
He stood up with Stella in his arms, and she leaned so she could hug me. I was gentle hugging her back, and then they left.
“You’ll be here tomorrow, right, Jed? To meet my mom?” she called back to me.
“I will. Now zip it and go to bed.”
She was giggling as Keith walked her out of the kitchen.
“Was your plan really to golf tomorrow?” Bodhi asked Hayden as he joined us at the kitchen counter.
“Well, yes. We all love it, and Dad got us spots at the club for—”
“And everybody is doing that?”
“Well, no, Josette and Angie are going to Pike Place Market and—”
“That sounds fun,” I told them.
Angie walked in and filled a tumbler with water.
“Hey, can I come along to Pike Place Market tomorrow?”
“Of course,” she said, chuckling, “but what about golfing?”
“I have an injured wing,” I reminded her.
“True. I mean, what would you do out there, sit in the golf cart and drink?” she said like the idea of that was really stupid.
“Right?” I said, glancing at Hayden.
“Count me in,” Bodhi told her. “I don’t golf either.”
“That’s true,” I seconded. “Tennis is his sport. And surfing, which he never does anymore.”
He shrugged.
“You play tennis?” Hayden asked him. “You’ve never said, and we have a court here. We should play.”
Bodhi sort of grimaced.
“I’ll go easy on you, I promise.”
I snickered and leaned over to check my phone.
Hayden said, “I would never just take him out there and be mean, Jed. That’s not me.”
He sounded annoyed, and I turned to apologize, but Bodhi put his hand on my shoulder, squeezing gently.
“That’s not what he meant,” Bodhi told him. “I don’t play because first, I get way too competitive. It’s like Jed when he plays chess.”
“You play chess?” Hayden seemed surprised, and I had the momentary desire to punch him.
“And second, I was a Division One All-American tennis player.”
“What?”
Bodhi shrugged.
“You were?”
He nodded. “I went to UCLA on a tennis scholarship.”
“You could have gone pro?”
“Yeah.”
“Then why didn’t—”
“Deputy US Marshal,” Bodhi said, smiling. “That was my dream.”
“Why?” Hank asked him.
“Justice. Integrity. Service,” he said, quoting the marshal creed.
Hayden sighed deeply. “You’re always going to be a marshal, aren’t you.”
“Yeah,” he said with that grin of his that made his eyes shine. “So that job at your law firm, the private investigator one? That’s not me. And I definitely don’t want to sit behind a desk.”
“I could sit behind a desk,” I chimed in.
He turned to me. “The hell you say.”
“Like Ian?”
His laugh in my face made me growl. “We both know Ian would rather be chasing down bad guys and dodging bullets.”
“I’m too old,” I whined.
“You just had a shoot-out with what, twelve guys, or however many there were, in a confined space and killed them all, just you and Crouse.”
Everyone was staring at me.
“That’s not what I’m talk—”
“It was on the news,” Bodhi told them.
Angie walked over to stand beside me and googled Chicago and marshals on her phone, and of course, it was the first thing that came up. “Holy shit, Jed, this is how you hurt your shoulder?”
I shot Bodhi a look that should have killed him dead on the spot.
“It says fifteen men here, Jed, just you and Special Agent Spencer Crouse.”
“They make things up in the press.”
“Just shut up and accept some praise for getting the bad guys,” Bodhi snapped at me.