Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 81584 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 408(@200wpm)___ 326(@250wpm)___ 272(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81584 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 408(@200wpm)___ 326(@250wpm)___ 272(@300wpm)
“Jesus,” I muttered.
“We take care of our own,” Myla told me gently. “Gray’s the one who realized what was going on, but if it had been any of my brothers? My dad? Bas? The outcome would’ve been the same, Frank. You know that.”
“I’m not done being angry,” I replied stubbornly.
“Cool,” she said with a shrug. “I like angry Francesca better than depressed Francesca—which is who we’ve been dealing with for a while.”
“I wasn’t depressed,” I argued dully. “Just stressed the fuck out and backed into a corner.”
“You’re really going to quit?” Myla asked. “For sure, for sure?”
“I’m really going to quit,” I confirmed. “Just thinking about going back there makes my skin crawl.”
“Okay, well just a second,” she mumbled, pulling out her phone. She put it up to her ear.
“Hey, go ahead and ask her.” She paused. “I know what I said…yeah, yeah…okay, bye.”
Seconds later, my phone rang.
“Frank,” Myla’s dad Tommy boomed in my ear. “You’re comin’ to work for me.”
“I’m what?” I asked, glaring at Myla.
“Want you to come do for me what you’ve been doin’,” he explained. “My daughter wouldn’t let me offer because she said you’d feel like you had to say yes. Fuckin’ bullshit, since you’ve never listened to me before. I’ll pay ya the same you’re makin’—”
“Can you afford that?” I asked, making him laugh.
“Don’t worry, doll, I can afford it. You’ve got the contacts, and you’ve been managin’ vendors for jobs much bigger than ours so it’ll be easy to settle in. I’m a fuckin’ fantastic boss—just ask my daughter-in-law. You can make your own hours. Work from home. I don’t give a shit as long as you’re gettin’ it done.”
“Are you serious?” I stared at the rain pouring off the gutters.
“Come by the house one night this week,” he replied. “We’ll feed ya and do the paperwork.”
“What if I’m terrible at my job?” I asked. “How would you ever fire me?”
Tommy was quiet for a moment. “You’re terrible at it, you’ll train until you aren’t,” he said, his voice more serious than it had been before. “Won’t need to fire you. I know you, kid. It’ll be good.”
“Thank you,” I sputtered.
“Set up dinner with my wife,” he ordered before hanging up.
Myla’s smile was all teeth. “Did I fuck up?”
“Your dad just offered me a fucking job.”
“I know.”
“Oh, cool,” Lou said happily.
“If I’d known he was looking, I could’ve quit a month ago.”
“Whoops,” Myla murmured knowingly. “Maybe if you’d said something.”
“Shit,” I breathed, dropping my phone to the floor.
We stayed outside bitching and talking until we passed out one by one. I woke up to footsteps on the floorboards. When I opened my eyes, I nearly shit myself before I realized that I knew the men on the sunporch well.
“I’m still pissed at you,” I snapped as Gray bent over me.
“Cool,” he said unconcernedly. “You still can’t sleep on the fuckin’ sunporch.”
“I put Lou in bed,” Cian told Gray. “I’m gonna bring Myla home.”
“Thanks for lettin’ me in.”
“Anytime,” Cian replied.
I pushed myself up onto my elbow. “No, not anytime. You shouldn’t even have a key to my house.”
“Used Myla’s,” he replied, disappearing into the house.
“She’s lost key privileges,” I muttered under my breath.
“If I pick you up, are you going to punch me?” Gray asked.
“There’s a really good chance of that, yes,” I replied, getting up myself. “Why are you even here?”
Gray followed me inside and locked the door behind him. “Because I didn’t want to sleep without you.”
Throwing up my hands, I turned to face him. “You don’t get to be sweet to me.”
“Why not?”
“You called me a kicked dog.”
“Poor choice of words.”
“You think?” I snapped.
“Put yourself in my shoes,” he replied. I both loved and hated that he was so calm when I was so angry.
“Oh, this should be good.”
He scowled. “I’m with you on a couple of bad days—I think, no matter how you want to describe ’em, they’d be considered not good. And I’m thinkin’, man, I’m fuckin’ gone for this woman, but she’s been through some shit. I don’t want to make things harder for you, so I back off for a while. Then I see you a month later, and you’re a goddamn shadow. Bags under your eyes, lost weight, fake laugh, just worn the fuck out. Turns out I shouldn’t have given you that time, what I should’ve been doin’ was keepin’ an eye on you.”
“I didn’t need you to babysit me,” I cut in stubbornly.
“No,” he barked. “You needed me to be there for you because you sure as shit weren’t letting anyone else, and I knew that.”
“You think that justifies you going behind my back—”
“I think that justifies everything,” he yelled. I was pretty sure it surprised both of us. “I think I got you out of a bad situation and made sure that you wouldn’t be comin’ straight back to it.”