Total pages in book: 767
Estimated words: 732023 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 3660(@200wpm)___ 2928(@250wpm)___ 2440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 732023 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 3660(@200wpm)___ 2928(@250wpm)___ 2440(@300wpm)
That was the reason I’d left them in the first place.
Perhaps she could sense how frantic I was because she turned and faced out into the restaurant. I could see her arms moving, probably wiping down the salt and pepper shakers to appear busy.
“Gentlemen, you’re looking mighty handsome today.”
They were there. Right there on the other side of the counter. I wanted to pop up and throw myself at them. Have them wrap their arms around me and hold me and tell me everything was going to be all right.
“We’d like to talk with Kit.”
I heard the deep tone of Nix’s voice and my nipples went hard.
“She’s not here,” Dolly replied.
“Her car’s in the lot.”
Shit, it was.
“She took the van to the mega store. We’re out of paper towels for the bathrooms.” Dolly was an impressive liar. “You’re not going to hurt my girl, are you?”
What was she doing? My mouth fell open and I gave her ankle a whack.
“That’s the last thing we want to do,” Donovan said.
She must have been satisfied with that, because she switched topics. “Any updates on the murder?”
“We can’t comment about an open case,” Nix said.
“Why not? Everyone else is,” she countered, referring to the non-stop gossiping among the patrons. “Some people are saying Kit did it.”
No one spoke for a moment. “Kit didn’t kill Erin Mills,” Nix told her. His voice was even deeper than usual.
“You’ve cleared her then?”
I held my breath.
“Not yet. The other detective should have called her, let her know she can get her things from Erin’s house.”
“I’ll be sure she knows.”
“Make sure she stays somewhere safe tonight,” Donovan told her.
“If you weren’t saying that because you’re worried about her, I’d call you out for sassing me, young man. She’ll stay with me and Clyde until she can find something.”
“Thank you,” Donovan murmured.
“You want to be with Kit, then clear her.” Dolly’s tone was one I knew well. It was her don’t fuck with me voice.
“Yes, ma’am,” Donovan replied. “When you see Kit, tell her we stopped by.”
“Will do.”
Thirty seconds later, Dolly turned, set her hands on her hips and looked down at me. “What did you do to those two? They looked fit to be tied.”
I assumed they were gone and pushed myself off the floor. “I broke up with them.”
She pursed her lips, studied me. “You never could do anything the easy way.”
That was for damned sure.
“Those men love you.”
My heart leapt at her words. Did they? They hadn’t said as much, but it had been two days. I knew how I felt, but them? I didn’t believe it. I couldn’t. It would hurt too much. I shook my head and she held up her hand.
“They do. I know why you did it, why you pushed them away. I wish you could get what you want for once. And if it’s two sexy mountain men, then so be it.”
I tried to smile, but it was hard. My heart walked out the door with Nix and Donovan. “Me, too, Dolly. Me, too.”
12
DONOVAN
Two nights with Kit and I couldn’t sleep without her. My bed felt empty without her in it. I eased my hard dick in the shower with my hand, but it wasn’t the same as her hot pussy and my balls were still blue as fuck. I wanted her. Needed her.
I glanced at my unmade bed, remembered what the three of us had done in it the other night.
It wasn’t just the sex with her I craved, but her smile. Her softness that smoothed all of my rough edges. She was light where I was dark. I could sound like a fucking poet, but she was everything.
She’d been all in, been right there with us in this relationship. We hadn’t lied, hadn’t played any games. Only two days together, but the thing between the three of us had been simmering for over a year. Longer than that even. What kid saw a girl across the school and wanted her forever?
Me.
Nix, too.
It had taken for-fucking-ever to get to this point. When we’d told her we wanted to marry her, we’d meant it.
This fucking case was ruining everything. Sure, I sounded petty thinking about my love life when Erin Mills was on a slab in the morgue, but what Nix and I had with Kit had nothing to do with the case, with what happened to Erin.
I put my empty coffee mug in the sink, turned off the kitchen light.
Fuck, the case was ruining everything. The one line of Kit’s note, it will only make things worse for you and Donovan, told me all I needed to know.
She was sacrificing herself for us. That wasn’t how this was going to work. No fucking way. Our girl didn’t get to decide shit like that all on her own. She didn’t get to decide what I did with my job, what Nix did with his. Yet, she had.