Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 55769 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 279(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55769 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 279(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
His shit was degenerating, he knew it, Lee knew it, and that was why Lee said, “Luke, brother, maybe you need to take a walk.”
Luke gave his head one curt shake. “Not until he promises he’ll crawl back to his rock and wait. Wait until I talk with Ava. Wait until she makes her decision.” He said this to Lee, but again his eyes didn’t leave Adrian. He said his next to Adrian. “You don’t hear from her, you know she’s excised you and that’s it. You don’t try to find her. You don’t try to talk to her. You also don’t go after Marilyn or Sofia. Ava calls this shot for all three. She deserves that privilege after you left her to them, and they’ve done dick to earn it back since you’ve been gone. But I suspect this isn’t about Marilyn and Sofia. I suspect this is all about Ava.”
The guilt on his face that showed clear he still didn’t want anything to do with his two oldest, unless they eventually came with the package of Ava, answered that question.
That was one area where Luke didn’t blame him. But he didn’t share that.
He kept laying it out.
“You do hear from her, listen to me now. When she sees you, I’ll be there. You dick her over again, I’ll be there. But my boys who are here to make sure I got it in check will not.”
“Are you threatening me?” Adrian asked.
“I’m tellin’ you, you broke her heart. That’s in my safekeeping now. It was then, but I fell down on the job when you left. I’m not gonna fall down again, Adrian. That is what I’m tellin’ you.”
They stared at each other.
Something bleak entered Adrian’s eyes, which Luke also had zero fucks to give, and then the man said, “Fair enough.”
Luke moved out of the way of the door, a nonverbal cue for Adrian to get the hell out.
Adrian took it, but he also took his life in his hands when he stopped after he came abreast of Luke.
There, he said, “You’re everything he feared you’d be. So much more than he was, it ate at him. In competition to see who had the biggest balls with his own son. Everyone knew the answer to that before you even grew chest hair. Why he couldn’t glory in playing a part in creating that rather than railing at it, I’ll never know. I also don’t know what my girl is going to decide. I deserve whatever it is. I’d like a chance to explain, but you’re right. That’s up to her. But I’m not leaving here without you knowing, I’m thrilled you two are together. Fate shone on you when you moved across the street from us. Not because Ava needed you. Because you needed Ava.”
“Thanks for tellin’ me something I already know,” Luke bit out.
“And thanks for confirming you knew it,” Adrian shot back.
With that, he left.
Lee gave it a beat then asked, “Want me to find something for you to throw?”
Luke angled his head from side to side, feeling the crack on the left, his shit was so tense.
Then he looked to Lee and said, “I’m good.”
“You really gonna tell Ava he was here?”
“I really am. She deserves to know.”
“She gonna take him back?”
“That I don’t know. All I know is, I’m gonna take her back, whatever she decides.”
Lee nodded.
Luke didn’t.
It was quitting time.
He was headed home.
On the ride up the elevator to his loft, Luke braced.
Not because of what he had to talk to Ava about.
He always braced.
This was because he could walk into his loft, and she’d be sitting with Shirleen, watching movies that prominently featured half-naked men. She could be getting her hair done by Daisy, a do that would end up being terrifying (but he’d still fuck her with it, he knew this because it had happened). She could be half-plastered and gabbing with Sissy on the way to getting totally smashed, so he’d either have to drive Sissy home or call Dom to come and get her. She could be dabbing camo paint on her face because of some shit the Rock Chicks got themselves involved in.
It could be anything.
So bracing before was the way to go.
The doors opened up, he heard Tom Petty singing “Free Fallin’,” and then his heart opened up.
Because his woman was in the kitchen, her eyes came right to him the instant he appeared, and her face split into a happy smile.
Shit, she was a knockout. So fucking gorgeous, he was constantly fighting a hard-on when he was around her.
She was also hilarious and crazy and didn’t take his shit.
And Adrian wasn’t wrong. Luke wouldn’t be the man he became if she hadn’t been across the street, looking out for him on the not-rare occasion his father got up in his face.