Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 68576 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68576 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
I was halfway home before the nervous sweating finally stopped.
Tits.
—T-shirt
PEPPER
I didn’t rush to answer my door.
The fact that no one ever visited meant this could only be one person.
I glanced around the hotel room that was acting as my apartment.
It’d been the first place I could find to stay the night I’d come into town, and instead of questioning my luck when I saw the HELP WANTED sign at the side entrance—because God forbid you let your ‘esteemed guests’ know you were in need of workers—I’d jumped on it.
I’d even finagled a place to stay out of my volunteering to be on call when I was in residence, and so far, everything was working out great.
Even better, I got to do what I loved—be a nosy busybody.
Another furious knock sounded, and since I was on the floor with actual paying guests, I reluctantly went to answer it so she didn’t create a scene.
When I opened the door, I wasn’t shocked to see a uniformed officer standing there.
I was shocked, however, to see my sister wearing that uniform.
When had she done that?
Or was I just that caught up in not wanting to know anything about her that I hadn’t paid attention to the fact that she was now an officer of the law?
God help the city of Dallas, Texas.
“Did you decide to dress up for a reason?” I asked.
She lifted her lip up at me with a silent snarl. “I’m a licensed officer of the law.”
The devilish smirk she wore meant bad things for me.
“Are you now?” I asked, unworried.
I had cameras everywhere. Two in my hotel room. One down the hall on my left, and one down the hall on my right.
I had great angles of everything that happened next.
That was partially why I’d chosen to take them up on the offer for a room. Mostly great protection from, well, her.
“I see that you’re skeptical,” she tugged lightly on the badge that was front and center on her breast, “but it’s all real.”
I contained the laugh.
Barely.
“I’m sure that everything you did while at the academy was on the up and up,” I nodded.
Sage took a step toward me, her anger palpable.
“You…” she began, but I interrupted.
“Why are you here?” I asked my sister.
“I’m here because you can’t seem to catch the fucking hint!” she snarled. “I want you to stay out of my life.”
I frowned. “I haven’t done anything to you.”
She scoffed. “Was it not you I saw with Atlas yesterday at dinner?”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “That was me taking care of the children of some of my favorite people.”
“Sure,” she laughed incredulously. “And the goo-goo eyes you were making at him were fake?”
Okay, so I was really bad at hiding my emotions.
Sue me.
“Sure,” I said sweetly.
A beep of my watch had me glancing down at the time.
I had to go if I was going to make it to the bakery in time to get started on prep work for tomorrow.
“I will not tolerate your closeness to Atlas,” she seethed. “He’s mine.”
“He is not.” I barked out an abrupt laugh.
“He is!” she yelled.
I held up my hand. “Okay.”
“He is,” she repeated, this time lower. “And I’ll prove it to you.”
She pulled out her phone, then swear to all that was holy, she cued up some tears and placed the phone to her ear.
“Atlas,” she sniffled. “Please tell me it’s not true.”
I crossed my arms, so ready to see what happened next.
“You went on a date with my sister,” she moaned. “How could you do that after everything I told you?”
And, before my eyes, she smiled while still managing to sound like she was crying. “Really?”
“Okay, good,” she said. “She just told me that y’all were serious, and I didn’t know what to do or say.”
She winked and walked away, giving me the middle finger.
I closed the door on her retreating back, then went to the phone on the counter and pulled up the last ten minutes of video feed.
Then I did what any responsible adult would do… I sent it to my family.
Even my dad.
Throwing the phone on the first available flat surface, I got dressed in a pair of cut-off jeans, red Birkenstocks, and a loose t-shirt that had ‘Pie Hard’ on it. Then snatched my phone and my keys.
I then got into the car and drove the twenty-seven minutes it took me to get to Sunnyvale where Maven had opened her bakery after everything that had gone down with the man who raised her.
Letting myself in through the back, I got started on the meal prep for the next day, only coming out to where Maven was manning the front counter when I heard her calling my name.
Maven jerked her chin toward the side, and I allowed my gaze to move, nearly groaning when I saw who awaited me.