Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 109178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 546(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 546(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
She used to tease him about the vein that ran in the middle of his forehead, which pulsed when he was laughing, or his temper flared. Lennox didn’t seem to notice how many women’s heads he turned. How ladies flocked to him, attracted to all of his brawn and God-given swag. He wasn’t a player. Or at least, he never presented himself as such.
They’d had many candid conversations over the two years they’d worked together at The Red Rooster. Sometimes he’d drive her home when her car was acting up. Sometimes she’d bring him medicine when he was fighting a cold and refused to take proper care of himself. She opened up to him in ways she never imagined she would, and to her knowledge, he’d never told a soul her secrets. There was no gossip spreading around town about her on account of her confiding in him, and she kept his personal information close to her heart, too. Things he told her before she left for Georgia. Things that stuck to her heart like glue.
They just got each other. What was understood didn’t need to be explained. He had a wisdom about him, and when she found out the fucker was wealthy but working in dives and holes in the wall, she angrily confronted him. Yet, instead of being pissed off that she could blow his cover, he simply said, “Nadia, not all money is good money. Little boys run to shiny things. I run to what’s real… I’m a man. A REAL man. Shiny shit don’t impress me.” And that was that. Rufus’ (Chaka Khan) sang, ‘Stay,’ on her favorite oldies playlist, coloring her memories in sepia and honey love.
Her phone suddenly shrilled, the old-fashioned ringtone snatching her away from her thoughts. She answered it without even looking at the I.D.
“Hello?”
“Nadia, good mornin’. It’s Lennox. I hope you’re fully awake and sober because we need to talk…”
Lennox’s mind wandered as he waited for his special guest. That day at Grandpa’s had been far from a friendly visit, and it didn’t take long for old man Longhorn to get revenge for what he perceived as disrespect from his seven disobedient grandsons. Each of them was sent a warning of sorts… Country Mafia style. Grandpa didn’t take too kindly to the laughter, interruptions, and questioning of his authority. Perhaps it was bad enough that they’d already told him by their actions to take that job and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine.
Lennox got in trouble with the old man, too. All because he had decided to stick up for his mother, and would do it again if necessary. That put him on the target list right along with the rest of his cousins. He’d gone into work at the gym that week and been notified that a man had robbed the register. That within itself was bad enough, but the guy dropped something on his way out: Lennox’s I.D. How in the hell did that show up? He figured Jasper had probably taken it during one of the pat downs. Grandpa was always thinking ahead…
The fuzzy cameras at the gym only showed a hooded guy about his same build, and sure as shit, his license was missing. Thankfully, Viola, one of the clerks, vouched for him stating that she’d just spoken to Lennox, and saw him with her own eyes as they FaceTimed. He’d been in a bookstore about thirty minutes away, picking up some materials for a client. She knew exactly where the bookstore was, for she frequented it often, and could see the books in the background during their video conversation.
There was no way he could have gotten to the gym that fast unless he was a cheetah. His other cousins had also received “special treats” from Grandpa. Some were mailed rather disgusting materials along with a threat, while others had been impersonated making obscene phone calls and what not to important folks. Not all of them had proof to exonerate themselves, or were believed. The damage was done. To ensure that they knew the old fucker was behind it, soon thereafter, a text message appeared on all of their phones from an unknown number that simply stated: KEEP FUCKING AROUND AND FINDING OUT.
You just don’t talk to Grandpa any ol’ kinda way, and that was that. To Grandpa, blood was thicker than water, even if that blood was black as coal, and poisonous as a venomous snake. Grandpa made the tricks, but he was far from a kid. If you listened to grandpa well, and paid close attention, in many ways he was rather predictable. He knew before he left that they were all up shit’s creek. Lennox thought it awfully odd that the old man barely flinched while his cousins berated him. Grandpa had sat there during that meeting cold as ice. Unfazed. That wasn’t Grandpa’s nature at all. He was typically jovial and psychopathic. A true blue nutjob with a constant axe to grind. He knew the man had to be up to something because he’d killed men for lesser offenses, and though family was important to his grandfather for all of the wrong reasons, he was rumored to have “removed” a few relatives, too.