Total pages in book: 52
Estimated words: 47822 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 239(@200wpm)___ 191(@250wpm)___ 159(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47822 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 239(@200wpm)___ 191(@250wpm)___ 159(@300wpm)
“Yes.” River didn’t sound as confident as she had before. In fact, now she looked like she realized she might be in over her head. “I’m sorry to cause so much trouble.”
“Honey.” Crush stepped forward and held out his hand to shake hers. “You ain’t causin’ no trouble. That’s all on our grandmother.”
That got a small smile from her. “I admit, I’m not sure I expected you to show up. And I have no idea how I talked myself into going with you in the first Goddamned place.”
“We’re not gonna leave you hangin’, girl.” The gruff tone of Crush’s voice didn’t sit well with me.
“Crush.” I couldn’t disguise my displeasure, but my brother didn’t take offense.
“Relax, man.” He cleared his throat. “Little hard to tone it down.” Yeah. I got it.
River looked adorably confused, but I saw a sliver of fear I didn’t like at all. “Hey.” I took a step forward and held out my hand to her. She took it and for some reason, I tugged her toward me. “We’re not gonna hurt you, River.” I’m not sure how I found any sort of tenderness inside myself. “You know that. Right?”
She toed the ground where she stood before taking a breath. When she met my gaze, I nearly fell to my knees. Breathtaking didn’t begin to describe the full effect of those sparkling copper-colored eyes of hers. It felt like she was looking straight into my soul and I wasn’t sure if she found me lacking or not, but she might give me a chance. “Yeah. I know. Mrs. Walsh wouldn’t send me to someone who was gonna hurt me.” Then she started slightly before shaking her head. “Except she’s got dementia so she probably wouldn’t know if she sent me to someone who was gonna hurt me.”
She looked so put out I found myself smiling. Crush laughed softly. “Trust me when I tell you, Maggie is in complete possession of all her mental faculties.” He chuckled again. “Dementia, my ass. Is that what she’s got everyone believing now?”
“I had my doubts,” she muttered.
There was an awkward silence, but it didn’t feel like anyone’s fault. But honestly, I didn’t really expect conversation to flow effortlessly. Eventually, I couldn’t help myself. “Did you bring the message?”
She nodded. “Yeah.” She reached into her backpack and produced the phone, still powered up, and a slip of paper folded in quarters. She handed them both to me.
I didn’t even have to look at Crush. I could feel his attention locked on my face, waiting for me to do my thing. I pulled out my own notebook, which was actually a battered, sticker-bombed composition pad. Maggie had given us dozens of codebooks over the years, but this was her favorite. She called it “the skeleton key.” Whenever she wanted us to decrypt something, she’d reference a cipher in this notebook.
The grid of letters, numbers, and symbols looked familiar. It was her favorite cipher when we were kids. She taught us when we were younger, and Crush and I had used it any time we wanted to pass something secret to each other. This whole adventure was for fun, so it made sense she’d use something we could easily read but would keep River guessing.
“What’s it say?” she asked, bouncing slightly on her toes. The excitement was back, replacing the nervousness from earlier. I liked that unfiltered excitement when she got distracted from being in a strange place with strange men. She really needed to be more careful, but her lack of self-preservation wouldn’t be much of a problem since she now had me and my brother to look out for her.
“Pike Place Market,” I said, showing the decoded message to Crush. “She wants us to go to Seattle.”
Crush nodded, his expression giving nothing away to anyone but me. Amusement danced in his gaze as well as a small amount of resignation. We both knew where we were going. Maggie had taken us hiking and camping in the area around Seattle when we were kids. “About two hours and some change away. We should get moving.”
River’s eyes widened. “Now? Like, right now?”
“Unless you’ve got other plans?” I asked, unable to keep the smile from my face. Her enthusiasm was infectious and, for the first time in longer than I could remember, excitement spurred me on, tempting me to simply hang on for the ride and let things fall where they may.
“Sting said you guys might need an off-road vehicle.” Boon tossed Crush a key fob. “Bronco’s out front. I put you a couple weapons and some ammo in the back along with camping gear and supplies.” He leaned against one wooden column with his shoulder. “Take a quick inventory. Let me know if there’s anything else you need.”
That caught me by surprise. “Wasn’t expecting that. Thanks, man.”