Page 69 of Time to Bounce

I watched her go, unable to do anything else.

“Guess that’s my cue,” Garrett said as he reached for his coffee cup—no longer the clown one might I add—and headed out. “Have a good day, motherfucker.”

“Fuck you,” I said to him without heat.

Garrett shrugged, knowing damn well what I was saying ‘fuck you’ about, and kept going.

When I heard the front door shut, I turned to Callena and said, “What happened with Tyrone?”

She pulled out her phone, then sighed. “He sent a text saying he was caught up at the office.”

“Well, then we can have this discussion at the station,” I suggested. “I’ll meet you there.”

Callena looked like she was about to argue, but I didn’t take no for an answer.

I led her to the door and let her out, seeing Garrett’s taillights as I did.

“Oh,” she looked like she was conflicted. “But I have…”

I closed the door on her face, angry.

Not that Callena had really done anything overtly flirtatious, but she’d ruined my goddamn morning.

I’d wanted to wake Athena up with my mouth, and instead I had to watch her take off running because another woman was in my home.

Awesome.

Just fucking awesome.

Instead of driving straight to work, I stopped by Pie Hard, and was unsurprised to find Maven glaring at me.

“What?” I asked.

“You brought another woman into your home this morning?” she asked. “What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking that the lady I brought into my home said that she had important information about a case that I participated in, that has a guy involved in it who’s currently in jail but obsessed with Athena,” I pointed out. “So yeah, when she has some bad news about it, I want to know what it is. Immediately.”

Maven’s shoulders slumped. “I thought that Madman guy was out of the picture now?”

“I think he still is,” I agreed. “But a lot of shit can go down when you sleep overnight. I would think if anything happened, my dad or one of my brothers would’ve called me, but sometimes they don’t always know things first.”

Maven reached for a box, then started filling it with a few things.

She handed it over to me and said, “Stop by the gas station and get her some chocolate milk.”

I nodded, thankful that she was trying to help.

“What about me?” I asked, pouting.

Maven rolled her eyes. “Your dad already came in here and got a lot of stuff. It’s in his office so y’all can have first pick when you get there. I gave him all of my chocolate eclairs that were ready, so unless you want something else…”

“No, thank you.” I winked. “Thanks, Maven.”

I turned on my heel and had my hand on the door to head back out to my vehicle when Maven’s voice stopped me.

“How are you about learning that she could possibly have issues down the road?”

I’d been trying really, really hard not to think about it, to be honest.

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