Page 26 of Grumpy Sunshine

Working my ass off since I’d graduated medical school years ago became such a natural thing that I didn’t know how to stop now that I didn’t need the money.

When Copper had gone to jail, Keely, Cutter and I had made a pact that we’d save a specific portion of our incomes to help Copper when he got out of prison.

At the time, we were still fighting an uphill battle along with our grandfather to maintain control of my father’s company, and we weren’t sure if we’d get it or not.

When we finally won that, though, it’d become such an ingrained habit that we’d all kept at it anyway.

I supposed I could finally slow down, but what would be the point?

It wasn’t like I had anyone at home…

“There’s a charity locally,” Aella said, interrupting my loneliness thoughts.“That accepts anonymous donations.We should take it all there.”

“We can’t take it there without getting some clean money first,” Webber pointed out.“Let us take care of it, then you can donate it to wherever you want.”

Aella’s eyebrows raised as she peered up at Webber.“You’d let me take it?”

“It’s not mine.”He shrugged.“But I’m serious, the money needs cleaned.They’ll find you in a heartbeat when you start using it.Or the charity does.We want them to be able to get something out of this, we have to make sure we get it clean and untraceable.”

Agreed.

“Okay,” she said, nodding.“Now, what do we do about her?”

Seven

I don’t know why doctors only give stickers to kids.Like, hello, I was also brave today, too.

—Aella’s secret thoughts

AELLA

So they didn’t end up doing anything with my mom.

Chevy suggested letting her go, but I knew better.

My mom would go to the first cop she could find and shout it from the rooftop of the police station that the Truth Tellers MC had been the ones behind stealing from a bank.

She needed some incentive not to talk, and I was going to be the one to give it to her.

The Truth Tellers helped her get her car off of their property, and they’d helped by taking all the money out of the trunk and making it a lot lighter.Then they called for a tow to take it as far from their compound as they could.

One of the Truth Tellers had taken off with the money with the promise of being back before sunup.

I’d waited until the rest of them, including Chevy, had disappeared into the barndominium before walking back to my car.

When I got there, it was to find my mom getting into an Uber.

She didn’t spare me a glance as she did exactly what I expected her to do—go straight to a police station.

When she got out and went inside, I followed suit, waiting in the wings of the largest police station in the area.

There was a lot going on, but as soon as my mother started yelling about a bank robbery, cops started to listen.

When one came up to her, a stern look on his face, I stepped up to her side and said, “Actually, if you want to find the bank robber, you might need to do a deep dive into where my mom’s been the last couple of days.I approached her because she decided to steal my rent money, and she pops the trunk of her car and tries to hand me some cash.Her entire trunk was full of the money.”

The cop’s eyes focused on me.

Detective.

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