Total pages in book: 35
Estimated words: 33462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 167(@200wpm)___ 134(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 167(@200wpm)___ 134(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
“Good morning, Sadie.”
His voice was higher than it should be for a twenty-year-old guy, and it grated on my nerves.
“Um, hey, Austin,” Sadie replied, her gaze darting nervously over to me before returning to him.
“You know what I like,” he murmured, his tone suggestive.
Sadie’s cheeks heated, but not from desire. Her feet shuffled uncomfortably, and her sky-blue orbs darkened with annoyance.
I moved my chair back, but I didn’t get up yet, waiting to see where the interaction went before possibly causing a scene.
“Sure. Almond latte and blueberry scone.”
What kind of man ate shit like that?
“I’m glad you haven’t had anything else breaking around here. But if you’re ever worried about it, let me know, and I’ll take a look. Maybe fix it before it breaks.”
Time to put this fucker in his place.
I pushed to my feet and started toward them while Sadie went to the espresso machine to work on his order.
“Actually,” she said conversationally, “the prep table was wonky this morning, but Wesley fixed it.”
Austin’s whole body tensed, and he shot a look my way that had those alarm bells blaring like a fire truck.
He tried to hide his anger and resentment but did a piss-poor job of it.
My eyes narrowed in warning, and he huffed, turning back to Sadie and practically snatching his food from her before stomping out the door. His lack of attention almost sent him barreling straight into Midnight and Phoenix.
I nodded at my brothers, and while Phoenix continued to peruse the glass cases of food, Midnight made a beeline for me.
“Got news,” he muttered as he dropped onto the chair opposite me.
I was surprised to hear that because he’d called me the day after Sadie received the note and told me there’d been no prints on it, leaving us with a dead end in that direction.
“Deviant find something?” It was unlikely that he would have told Midnight before me, but it was the only explanation for his news that I could think of.
“Yeah, but I only know because I gave him the lead.”
I waited impatiently for him to elaborate, tapping my fingers on the table.
“Thinking back on the situation after I didn’t find anything on the note, it occurred to me that it got into the mailbox somehow. They’d been meticulous with the paper, but had they been as careful with the metal box? So I came by yesterday and dusted it. Got five hits.”
I thought over the options and murmured, “The mailman, Marcy, Sadie, and me. Who was the fifth?”
“Austin Collins. He’s Geoff’s son. The owner of—”
“The hardware store,” I interrupted through clenched teeth. “I know.”
“Right. Told Deviant, and he dived into the kid.”
“He find any shit that hints at Austin having a history?”
Midnight shook his head, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms. “Didn’t come across anything official. Even when he went deeper, there didn’t seem to be any kind of pattern.”
“Could just mean this is the first time he’s gone off the deep end for a woman.”
I knew something had been off with that little bastard.
“Could be,” Midnight agreed. “If so, behavior like that shouldn’t go unchecked. Next time could be worse, and someone might get hurt.”
My hands clenched into fists and fury built inside me. “Sounds like the motherfucker needs a visit to The Room.”
“The Room” was a small building on Iron Rogues’ property built on a spot that was the farthest from any of the businesses, homes, and clubhouse. From the outside, it looked a lot like the safehouses we had throughout the south. We used the moniker because it was as dismissive as its exterior. But on the inside, it was very different. The interior had four rooms, a lounging area of sorts, a cell, an interrogation hold, an armory, and a storage space that had a cache of tools that might be needed to aid us in gaining what we wanted.
“Need you to send a couple of prospects here to watch over Sadie,” I growled as I packed up my shit.
He agreed and went outside to make the call.
I quickly pulled my woman aside. “Gotta go handle some club business, sunshine. But you’ll have a couple of rooks here to protect you.”
Sadie clasped her hands together and worried her bottom lip.
I was concerned that she might push for more information. We hadn’t really had the talk about her role in the club as an old lady and that she’d have to accept that there would always be things I couldn’t share with her.
But she shocked the shit out of me again.
“You can’t tell me anything, right?”
“Yeah. I won’t ever lie to you, sunshine. Or keep things from you. Unless it’s club business. Can you handle that?”
“Of course.” Her answer was immediate, and I was tempted to drag her to the back and fuck her because she was so damn amazing. “Is it dangerous?”