Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 139147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
The last two were clearly facing off dead center of the space.
“Having the holding cell offsite is ridiculous,” she was saying.
“It’s done. Mace and I agreed this building is too populated for that. We don’t need to be bringing that element in here. It’s not safe,” the dark-haired man returned.
“What’s done can be undone,” she retorted.
“If I wanted it to be, yeah, which I don’t, so it won’t,” the man shot back.
“You need help?” the man with the cameras asked Luna and me.
Everyone turned their eyes to us.
Having their direct attention, it had never done it before, so I didn’t know how I knew, but I still knew my heart had started palpitating.
I’d put all the men in the same age range as Mace, which, from what I could tell from the history Cap had shared, was around forty-five, or hedging toward too old for Luna and me.
I instantly changed my mind on the age range I’d accept for a dude.
But at a sweeping glance, only one of the guys didn’t have a wedding ring (the one sorting through the cameras).
And the other two didn’t just have wedding rings. They had wide, gleaming gold bands that screamed I’m taken! to all the women who had uteruses that instinctively urged them to throw themselves at these guys’ feet and beg them to make mini-future-hot-guy babies.
Even me, and I had my own super-hot dude.
Luna elbowed me.
I snapped out of the miasma created by breathing in so much drifting testosterone and witnessing such an extremity of good looks.
“We’re looking for Cap Jackson.”
The Black woman turned to face me fully.
A door to the back offices opened and Mace strode out, increasing the hot-guy quotient significantly.
Totally what was happening to my heart was palpitations.
“Hey, Rachel,” he greeted.
“Raye,” I corrected. “Hey back, Mace.”
I felt something pummeling me coming from the Black lady, it wasn’t good, or bad, or indifferent. I didn’t know what it was, and I also couldn’t give it my attention since I had Mace’s.
“Cap’s not here. You good?” he asked.
“Yeah, just in the neighborhood and—”
The Black woman was all of a sudden right next to Mace.
“You’re Rachel?” she asked.
“Yeah, hi,” I answered.
“I’m Shirleen.”
As this info hit me, unexpectedly confronted with Cap’s adored mom, I reeled a little bit, afraid I would faint.
“What on…?” Luna mumbled, grabbing onto my arm so I wouldn’t go down.
I’d done a couple meet-the-moms in my life. I’d fared well.
But this was Shirleen.
“This is…Cap’s mom,” I croaked.
“Holy…” She didn’t finish that either, her head snapping Shirleen’s way.
We both stared, mute, at Shirleen.
Oh God.
I had to get it together.
ASAFP.
But…
I’d just met Cap’s beloved mom!
I kept croaking to introduce, “Luna…Mace, Cap’s mom, hot guys. Hot guys, Cap’s mom, Mace, this is my best friend, Luna.”
“Nice to meet you, Luna,” Mace said.
The other men approached, and it was too much. I had to fight the urge to wave at them to stay back. They got better the closer they made it to us, so by the time they stopped and huddled around, I experienced my very first hot flash.
“I think I’ve died and gone to heaven,” Luna breathed.
“These are my partners, Lee Nightingale and Vance Crowe.” Mace ignored Luna and indicated the man who was arguing with Shirleen and the Native American man. “And one of our crew, Eric Turner.”
I didn’t hear the last part because…
The revered Jules’s husband and Cap’s big brother/mentor was standing right there.
Right in front of me.
I reeled again.
Luna clamped onto me.
Vance grinned a shit-eating grin.
“Of course he’s married,” Luna grumbled.
His grin got bigger.
“Lord,” she breathed, now reeling with me.
The door behind us opened, we whirled and watched Cap and Liam walk in.
That was when Luna lost it.
“Oh my God! I don’t know how much more I can take!” she exclaimed. “And I’ve already seen these two!”
A big smile hit Cap’s face as he greeted me. “Hey, baby. What are you doing here?”
I vaguely noted he ignored Luna as well, so I suspected this reaction happened a lot.
But I couldn’t think on that.
My hand, arm straight, finger pointed, indicated Shirleen. “I just met your mom.”
“Cool,” he said, watching me closely.
I adjusted my hand to Vance. “And Vance.”
“I see that,” he said slowly.
I dropped my arm, tardily remembering pointing was rude.
“I’m also fighting hyperventilating because I’m dewy and I don’t have a meet-the-mom-and-big-brother-slash-mentor outfit on,” I shared.
His beard around his lips twitched, he approached, took over holding me up from Luna by sliding his arm around my waist, then he bent and touched his mouth to mine.
Okay, I felt a wee bit better now.
But just a wee bit.
When he lifted away, he reminded me, “I attended Dream’s intervention yesterday, Raye.”
“Yeah. I know. But that ended up being more like a party, with dogs wrestling in the background and an ugly confrontation mixed in. This is terrifying.”
“I had something on. I didn’t have time to text to tell you they were in town. I found out this morning they’d flown in last night. Shirleen wanted to surprise me.”