Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 82411 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 412(@200wpm)___ 330(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82411 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 412(@200wpm)___ 330(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
The town square of Lindell is only a few blocks away. When I have to circle the small parking lot three times before finding a spot to park, I wonder why we didn’t walk from her house in the first place.
The small park beside the post office, what the locals call the square, is everything you’d expect from a small-town festival. Only this event is happening because Cerberus was incapable of protecting this town. It’s the anniversary of the brutal attack, a stone memorial off to the side of the park with the names of the three people who were killed by gunmen wanting to punish our club for shutting down a sex trafficking ring hundreds of miles away. We brought pain and bloodshed to their city limits, and instead of hating us and insisting we never step foot in their town, they asked us to return. It shows a level of grace not many people would be capable of managing. We were told it wasn’t our fault. We couldn’t have predicted what had happened. We weren’t responsible for the abduction of two women that took place prior. We weren’t the ones who hurt their town. Us being there stopped more bloodshed from happening. But as I turn Beth’s car off and watch the children playing in the field and people smiling and laughing, I don’t feel released from blame.
We approached that day the wrong way. We were told we didn’t want to alarm the people in town. We were armed but weren’t walking around with weapons drawn. Maybe, if we had, Walker, the bartender who warned me about Beth last night, wouldn’t have lost his twin brother. Maybe, Chase Woodson, a national hockey sensation, wouldn’t have gotten the call that his mother had died.
Yet, those weren’t things we heard after the chaos turned to grief. Devyn, Legacy’s woman, was abducted by one of the gunmen, and the town came together to help us find her.
She was checked on in the hospital by several people, including Walker and his sister, Harper, as if she was one of their own and not someone connected to the evil men who reduced their population by three.
“Were you here that day?”
I nod, my eyes following a little boy as he runs toward a woman, a balloon tied to his wrist trailing along behind him.
“I bet you find it weird, don’t you? Folks smiling and laughing on such a tragic anniversary?”
I nod because I honestly do.
“Lindell isn’t like any other place,” she says.
“Clearly,” I say dryly, my eyes scanning the crowd for danger.
“No one here is discrediting what happened that day, but we can celebrate the lives of the ones we loved without tears. We owe it to them. Justice was served. Every man that day who hurt our little town is either dead or in prison. There’s no more vengeance to seek.”
She holds her hand up to silence me when I open my mouth to speak.
“And before you say something about asking Chase, Walker, or Dr. Miller about their losses, know that they would tell you the same thing. Today isn’t about revisiting the tragedy, but remembering how special those people were while they were here with us.”
I search her eyes but find nothing that makes me believe she isn’t telling the truth.
“You don’t sound like a woman who wants to leave this town.”
She shakes her head, a sad smile forming on her beautiful face. “There’s no one here who would mourn my loss or celebrate my life.”
I reach my hand up, cupping her face. “I find that hard to believe.”
Her smile transforms into something a little more intimate, but it’s gone as quickly as it tugs up the corners of her mouth.
“Wait for me to get your door,” I tell her, palming her keys and climbing out of the car.
I could ask a million questions, discover what her wishes and dreams are, but, honestly, it’s not my place. We’re here today to help her save face. With her by my side, it keeps the guys from giving me shit because they’d never do it in front of her, on the off chance that I might think I’m in love with this woman. They have too much respect for me than that.
She grins up at me when I pull open her door.
“There might be a little Southern charm in you after all, Derrick Lee.”
“Wait until we’re alone later, and I’ll make sure to have all that Southern charm inside of you.”
Her laughter is real, a contrast to the fake smile she was giving me when I first opened her door.
“I can’t believe you think that shit has ever worked on a woman before.”
I pull her free of the open door and close it, pressing her back to the side of her car, my lips dangerously close to hers.