Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 82973 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82973 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
He didn’t blame Whit McFadden. Digging up a couple of child graves in the middle of his pasture would motivate him to make the violence against innocents stop, too. “Yep. But until the police finish the forensics, we’re at a standstill. So I’m out of here for a few days. The bosses can fucking fire me if they want. I’ll get another job. But I doubt I’ll find another woman who makes me feel the way Madison does.”
Nash clapped him on the back. “Amen. My two cents? The bosses won’t fire you. From what my brother has said, Hunter, Logan, and Joaquin all went through epic shit to get their wives to say yes. So they should understand.”
“Time will tell.” He bobbed his head toward Madison’s gal-pals. “Let’s move in.”
Haisley leaned against the pool table on the far side of the room, swigging bubbly and scowling at a guy wearing a backward ball cap, a gray tank that revealed ink on bulging shoulders, and jeans slung so low his black boxers peeked out.
The guy leaned toward the redhead like he had every right to touch her. “C’mon, baby. I’m a known commodity.”
“Which, in my book, means you’re stale.” Haisley gestured to the other side of the bar. “Move along.”
The interloper didn’t take the hint. Instead of leaving, he wrapped his arm around her waist. “I did you good before.”
The two women clustered around Haisley, ones Matt recognized from the wedding, both snickered.
“That’s not how we heard it,” quipped the blonde at her side.
The brunette next to her joined in. “Gracelyn is right. Below average is a more accurate description, so you should dial back your bragging.”
Haisley pointed at her friend. “What she said. Now, seriously, Jase, get lost.”
The guy’s face hardened. “You’re being a cunt. You need to get laid. Maybe that will cure some of your bitchiness.”
Beside Matt, Nash stiffened, then lunged in Jase’s face. “What the fuck did you say to her?”
The local boy might be decently put together and have skills, but he would be no match for Nash—a six-foot-seven mean motherfucker with a black belt, street cred, and a past life as a marine.
Predictably, Jase’s self preservation instinct kicked in, and he backed off. “Nothing. Just…conversation, man. She’s not worth the trouble. You can have her.”
When he turned to leave, Nash grabbed the punk by the shirt and snarled in his face. “Listen, asshole. Who ‘has’ her isn’t your decision. It’s not mine, either. It’s hers. Only hers. Maybe if you learned some fucking manners and showed some goddamn respect, you’d get somewhere with the ladies. This one you leave alone from now on…or you answer to me.”
Jase scoffed, but quickly retreated. “Whatever. I’m out of here. C’mon.”
His boys followed him like the lap dogs they were. In unison, they stormed across the room before thundering out the door. Around them, the women breathed a sigh of relief.
“Thank you,” Haisley murmured. “He’s been a pain in my ass for way too long.”
Nash nodded. “No problem. But I gotta say I thought you’d have better taste than that, sweetness.”
“I do now.” She winces. “High school mistake. And I told you not to call me that.”
“Sorry.” Nash grinned like he wasn’t sorry at all. “But if the flavor fits…”
She sighed in exasperation and slid her gaze Matt’s way. “What’s up with you? You look like a man on a mission.”
“We go on missions for a living,” Nash quipped.
Haisley looked him up and down. “I don’t see how. You’re hardly inconspicuous.”
“I have my moments.” His buddy grinned. “And I also have other talents. Wanna see?”
“Ugh.” She shook her head as Gracelyn and the other girl—hadn’t Madison once called her Charli?—giggled. “Not happening, Cash.”
“It’s Nash,” he corrected.
“Sorry.” Haisley grinned, not sounding remotely sorry, either.
Matt suspected those two had each met their match. “Hey, Haisley. Got a minute? I want to ask you about Madison.”
Something crossed the redhead’s face. Disquiet? Then she sighed. “What do you want to know?”
“Where can I find her? Our last couple of conversations…didn’t go well.”
“So I heard.” She shoved her hand on her hip and glared. “You broke her damn heart.”
Fuck. “I had a lot of shit going on.”
But it was a knee-jerk excuse, and he knew it. He’d been scared, and he’d waited too long to get his shit together.
“Which was clearly more important to you than she’ll ever be, so she pulled a ‘thank u, next.’”
“A what?” Nash frowned.
“You don’t know? For real?” When his pal shook his head blankly, she rolled her eyes. “The Ariana Grande.”
Nash recoiled. “Not my kind of music.”
“Another sign that we have almost nothing in common.”
“Opposites attract, sweetness.”
“I told you not to call me that,” she said through gritted teeth.
Matt had more important shit to deal with than their banter. “Can we focus? I need to see Madison. We have to talk this out.”