AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I just needed to ask your opinion.”
I leaned back in the office chair and stared up at the ceiling. Mom and I had a close relationship. She was my best friend. The one person I knew I could go to about almost anything. Almost. There were some things I’d never tell her, like the job, the volunteering, and the kiss.
God, the kiss.
“Want to know how to punish Asher for leaving his training gear in your car again?” I chuckled, thinking about the last time he’d done that. Mom hadn’t realized until she was blasted in the face with the smell a couple of days later as she got into her car.
“No, no.” She groaned. “Although, speaking of your brother, Cade keeps trying to teach him lacrosse, but you know your little brother is all about his fighting.”
I nodded, even though she couldn’t see me. Asher had been training in different martial arts since I could remember.
“No, this is…I can’t believe I’m about to ask this.”
“What?” I sat up straighter, my attention on high alert. She sounded stressed, and I’d only ever heard Mom stressed a handful of times. “What’s going on, Mom?”
“Do you think you kids are too old to go to the lake house with us?”
A breath whooshed out of me at the thought of the lake house. It was a safe haven of sorts, somewhere we could go and just be together without all the distractions. Not to mention the memories we’d made there.
“No. I love the lake house. Why?”
“Well, your dad wants us to go there for spring break—all of us—but Asher said we’d cramp his style and that he’s too cool to be hanging around with old people. Am I old, Belle? I don’t feel old, but I wonder if I’m becoming like one of those women who still think they’re eighteen when they’re actually forty-eight.”
I chuckled and held a finger in the air. “First of all, you’re not even forty until next year. And second, Asher is about to turn seventeen, so you’ll always cramp his style.”
“So…you’re coming, then?”
I tapped my fingers on the desk. “Hell yeah, I am. The lake house is my most-favoritist place on earth.”
“You know that’s not a real word, right?” Mom huffed out a laugh. “Why are you attending college when you can’t even use real words?”
A grin spread over my lips. “I go for the parties. Nothing else.”
“The modern education,” Mom sighed wistfully. “Talking about education, I have papers to grade.”
I snorted. “You have fun with that, Mom. I’ll message you later.”
“Okay. Speak to you later. Love you, sweetie.”
“Love you too, Mom.” I ended the call and stared at Jamie as she waltzed into the room. “Swapped with Lou again?” I asked her.
“Yeah.” She smiled, but I could tell she wanted to roll her eyes. Lou rarely turned up for her shifts, and when she did, she half-assed them. “I didn’t mind swapping.”
I made a noncommittal sound and moved toward the feeding/break room, counting down the seconds until I would get more Lottie cuddles.
* * *
FORD
Rory stretched his arms above his head and groaned. “I hate fuckin’ waiting.”
I raised a brow as I continued to stare out of the windshield at the house we’d been watching for the last hour. It felt like any other undercover op, only I wasn’t a person of the law sitting here and staring at the house on the block that dealt drugs. No. I was a member of the cartel about to go in there and take all of their product and issue them a final warning to get out of town. Whether they’d listen or not was yet to be seen, but my gut told me they wouldn’t.
I remembered what Hut was like when I was his second-in-command. He ran his territory with a tight fist and didn’t care who got hurt in the process as long as the job was done. Garza was more thoughtful with his moves. He waited and watched, seeing what his opponent would do, and then he’d strike. I wasn’t sure which type of leader was more dangerous, but I knew people thought twice before crossing the Garza Cartel.
“How much longer we gotta wait?” Rory asked, his tone whiny. “We’ve been here for an hour now. What are we waiting for?”
“We’re waiting for the house to be empty, or at least nearly empty.”
