Page 25 of Ugly Duckling
I took them as he pushed past me and walked inside, immediately going to Lottie and picking her up.
The little squeal of delight as the biggest, darkest, and most dangerous of all the Truth Tellers MC club members picked her up and gave her kisses had me happy as fuck.
Webber was the best of the best, but also the scariest of the scariest.
When I’d first moved down here, determined to make this world a better place with the services I provided, I’d met Webber and just knew this was where I was meant to be.
When Jett died, my rose-colored glasses had been ripped off so damn fast that I had whiplash.
I no longer saw the world as a good place.
What I did see was a world that had the potential for the worst, most heinous crimes imaginable, and the justice system wasn’t cutting it.
I didn’t like people. Saw evil everywhere. And more importantly, I didn’t think that doing this the “right” way, the “legal” way, was ever going to cut it.
Meeting Webber, I knew right then that he was the type of person that I wanted in my life.
The first night we’d met, I’d been at a bar drinking my sorrows away on the tenth anniversary of Jett’s death.
I’d been in my own world when a woman had started getting physically assaulted next to me.
I’d broken them up, then had taken the guy outside to show him why you should never beat on a woman, when Webber had joined me and helped me teach that lesson.
He’d known who I was, too, and had said he was a fan of mine.
We’d struck up a conversation over a beaten and bloody abuser, and he’d invited me out to a club party later that week.
I’d taken him up on his offer, and the rest was history.
I’d found my home, where I was meant to be.
And Webber had become one of my best friends, though that actual title belonged to Jasper, the scarred man who talked so little that sometimes I wondered if I was forcing my friendship on him.
But Webber? He was my constant as well, and he was definitely getting the lay of the land.
“Chocate?”
Webber snorted. “I didn’t bring any chocolate with me this time, honey. It would’ve melted in my pocket while we watched your daddy race.”
Lottie sighed, supremely disappointed in one of her favorite people not bringing her the chocolate she so desperately wanted, and usually got.
“Thank you for bringing my bag,” Sutton said softly. “I appreciate it. Also, thanks for grabbing my car. I didn’t want to have to walk the five miles back to it.”
“Was it actually five miles?” Webber asked.
“No,” she snorted. “But it was at least a mile, and my legs are pretty noodly. I haven’t had to keep up with him in a run in a long time.”
“You used to run with him?” Webber asked.
Yep, nosy.
“All the time,” she said. “We were in cross country and track together. And our school was fairly small, so we combined practices with the boys and the girls. Since I was faster than all the girls, I usually tried to keep up with the boys. I could never quite keep up with him, though. He was just too fast. I could always see his back, though. So there’s that.”
“What a good back it is,” I joked as I walked into the hallway bathroom and placed her things inside of it. “Shower’s ready when you are.”
She smiled thankfully at me and said, “I’ll be done as fast as I can.”
“No rush,” I murmured as I watched her back as she disappeared into the bathroom.
