Doin' a Dime by Vale, Lynn (learn to read activity book .txt) 📕

the way home so I could grab a drink, and five out of the seven people in line had it in their carts.”

She laughed. “I can see why.”

“Want to walk on the beach with me?” I asked as I stood up, holding out my hand.

She placed her hand in mine, and together we walked hand in hand down the length of the beach until we reached the jetty, then back.

We passed other couples, too.

Some with families of their own. Some with dogs. Others with their grandkids even.

And as I passed each and every one, I made a mental note to have that kind of life with Wyett.

Hopefully soon.

This year it was just the two of us.

Next year, who knew what it would bring?

• • •

Wyett was asleep on the couch, her face pressed against my thigh, and her arms were thrown around my waist.

She looked extremely uncomfortable, but I left her alone because I liked having her there.

We were out on the back deck.

It was way past midnight, the waves were crashing ferociously from a summer storm that rolled in just after we’d arrived back at the rental, and I had my computer perched on the arm of the couch as I was turned to it awkwardly.

The awkwardness was because I didn’t want to put it in my lap and have the fan blowing on her face, nor did I want the brightness of the screen to bother her sleep.

Shortly after dinner Lynn had sent over some information on a couple of items he needed me to look into, and I’d gotten immersed in the complexity of it while Wyett had read a romance novel by my side.

After finishing up with my work, she’d still been reading, so I’d switched over to my new hobby—bringing down Stella Villin.

Once again, everything seemed okay on paper, but the damn woman had a reckless streak a mile wide.

When we pushed and dug, she got even meaner.

Meaning, she had more to hide.

And I wanted to find out what.

At first, it was only a hunch that had me continuing to search.

Wyett rolled and moved, causing her arm to finally come unglued from behind my back, and her face nestled even more into my lap, no longer making her neck look broken from the odd angle.

The new position, however, had her hot breath fanning the top of my cock.

Better and worse, for sure.

Grinning, I went back to work.

That’s when I found what I’d been searching for.

A random payment of a million dollars, paid over the course of the last ten years, to a man in New York.

A man that, after doing some research on him, I now realized was a hit man.

A hired hit man.

A man that was hired by Stella, Wyett’s aunt, to kill her family.

What. The. Fuck.

CHAPTER 17

Book whore. Spread those pages, baby.

-Text from Six to Wyett

WYETT

He waited until our vacation was over, and I was seconds away from being home, to tell me about his suspicions.

“I’m sorry, but what?” I asked, hoping he hadn’t said what I thought he said.

“I think your aunt might’ve killed your parents,” he repeated. “I’ve done some digging. She has a very high payment she made to a man out of New York. He’s great on paper. The problem is he’s just that. On paper. It took me a moment to realize that I needed to look more in depth in him. So I did. And found out that he’s a hired contract killer. He’s wanted in four countries and is on the FBI’s most wanted lists.”

I felt bile rise in my throat.

“And, as of yesterday, an anonymous tip went out that showed his whereabouts as of about thirty-six hours ago,” he continued. “They picked him up this morning.”

My stomach dropped.

“What?” I breathed.

“Yes,” he confirmed. “He’s in the custody of some FBI members out of Kentucky. He’s being thoroughly questioned. And, I also forwarded your aunt’s information, the payments, as well as a few other things I thought might help, to them. Hopefully, with any luck at all, they’ll be bringing your aunt in on charges.”

“My aunt killed my family.” I couldn’t wrap my head around that. “My family was really good to her, Hunt. I mean… how does that even work? She was a crazy asshole and hid from them when she did them wrong. My dad always made sure to stay in touch, though. Then she puts out a contract to kill them, and actually succeeds. Then, on top of that, she’s given their kid to raise? Oh, and if that’s not good enough, when that kid is of age and starts to challenge her, she tries to take that fortune away from her, too? I’d be surprised if I didn’t have another hit out on me.”

Hunt froze for a moment.

Then he cursed and started to pull out his phone.

When that didn’t go quite as planned, he pulled over, got out of his car, and then yanked his laptop from his bag.

That’s when I realized that something was wrong.

“Fuck!” he cried out.

I widened my eyes and stepped out of the car, my eyes going to the cars that were passing us on the very narrow shoulder.

“Hunt?” I called out. “We’re literally a few minutes from home.”

“Fuuuuuck!” he bellowed.

I looked at the cars that were starting to slow, some of them looking like they were going to pull over completely.

“Hunt, get your ass in the car. Let’s go!” I ordered.

That seemed to snap him out of it.

He folded the laptop almost gingerly and walked around to the driver’s side again.

He got in, buckled his seat belt, then looked to enter traffic just as I buckled myself in.

But instead of turning back toward home, he swung a bitch and headed in the opposite direction.

“What’s going on?” I asked softly.

He didn’t answer at first, his fingers tightening and loosening on the steering wheel.

I looked back behind us at the trailer he was towing with his motorcycle on it, then at how fast he was driving.

He was going