Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 73208 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73208 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
She paused, and I realized she was looking at the Converse that Dovie had left beside the door. Tensing, I waited. It wasn’t like they couldn’t be mine … well, Dovie’s foot was a few sizes bigger, but Maeme wouldn’t study a pair of shoes that closely. Would she?
“If you find yourself needing to leave sooner rather than later,” she said, turning back to me, “you’ll find that the lease you signed here won’t be an issue. In fact, I would bet that it no longer exists.”
I stared at her, trying to figure out what she was telling me. How did the lease no longer exist?
She set the basket down beside the Converse. “I’ll just leave this too. It will hold a good bit of food. Would be a shame to run off and leave it,” she said, then nodded her head before opening the door and walking out of it.
I waited until I heard the elevator ding before letting out a breath I had been holding. Had she suspected anything? Did she know I wasn’t alone? And what had she meant about my lease? None of this made me comfortable. We weren’t safe if someone with her power found out about Dovie. She was a nice woman, but I couldn’t trust her. I couldn’t trust anyone.
We needed to start packing.
• Seven •
“It isn’t like she’s committing a crime.”
Storm
Sunday lunch was always loud. Maeme made a spread of food, and whoever could be there in the family came to eat. Her long dining room table was full, along with the table in the kitchen and the seats at the bar. Several of us hadn’t been to bed in over twenty-eight hours, yet we had shown up for the meal.
The money Jameson had owed us was collected, and he was sent away, beaten with a warning, which surprised me. I’d thought Stellan would kill him.
His decision had been made because Jameson hadn’t actually shot at one of us and Briar Landry wasn’t ours to protect. Then, there was the fact that his death wouldn’t have gone unnoticed. We’d have had to clean that up, and it would have taken a lot of strings to have it swept under the rug. Some that Stellan hadn’t felt was worth wasting our time on.
I’d be lying if I said my thoughts hadn’t kept going to Briar and her safety. I didn’t want to give a fuck, but there was a solid chance he’d go after her again. Even though I’d made it very clear to him that she had nothing to do with us.
My vehemence that she’d been innocent in all of it though might have been a little too intense. Either Jameson would fear for his life if he went after her or he would be livid, believing she had hooked up with me and I was protecting her. I felt like I should at least warn her that he was alive. She didn’t need him showing up, unannounced.
When Mandilyn, Stellan’s wife, followed my mother out of the dining room, he looked at Maeme, who was the only woman left at the table. King; his father, Ronan; Wells, who had been my best friend, growing up; and his father, Roland, also remained. Thatcher sat to the right of his father, and Sebastian was in the kitchen, talking to the oldest of my two younger sisters, Lela.
Although most of us were not related by blood, we were something more than that. Our families went back generations inside what we referred to as the family. In the Georgia branch of the family, we were made up of four families. The Shephards, the Salazars, the Joneses, and of course my family, the Kingstons. Some of our extended family bled into other branches. For example, my first cousin, Huck, was the boss’s main protection in Ocala, Florida. Huck’s father had been my dad’s brother, but he’d been killed years ago. Then, Stellan’s brother was over at the Mississippi branch while his son, Levi, worked directly for the boss in Ocala. Once you were locked into the family, you never left.
“You went to Briar Landry’s apartment yesterday morning,” Stellan said to Maeme.
That caught my attention, and I stopped the spoonful of peanut butter pie I was about to put in my mouth to swing my gaze over to Maeme. Her eyebrows were raised, and she was looking at Stellan as if he had asked her a question that was none of his business.
“And?” she replied.
Stellan leaned back in his chair and sighed. “No need to get snippy with me. I was just curious as to why you felt you needed to get her lease canceled.”
Maeme placed her glass of sweet tea back on the table beside her plate. “We don’t discuss business at my dinner table. You know the rules.”