Page 8 of Rooster

“Okay. What’s going on with you?”

“Remember how I thought Tony was going to propose last night?” She tossed her bag on the table and grumbled, “Well, it turns out that he had zero plans to ask me to marry him. Like, the thought hadn’t even crossed his mind. How could it not have crossed his mind? We’ve been together for two years. What the hell is that?”

“Oh, honey. I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be. It’s my fault for getting my hopes up.” She let out a defeated breath. “I just thought we were in a different place, and it’s disappointing to find out that I was wrong.”

“I’m really sorry.”

“It’s all good. Some people just aren’t destined to be happy.” There was no missing the disappointment in her voice when she said, “Apparently, I’m one of those people.”

“No, you’re not. You just gotta give it time. I’m sure Tony will wise up and realize that he has a good thing with you.”

“If he hasn’t figured it out by now, I doubt he ever will.”

I understood her doubt. I’d felt it many times, before and after my divorce. That’s what being cheated on does to a person. It fills them with doubt. I doubted myself, my marriage, my entire life, and it killed my self-esteem. It was one of the many reasons why I hadn’t gone on any dates since. I simply wasn’t ready for another reason to doubt myself, so I steered clear of men.

Except for one night when I let myself get swept away—a night I would not soon forget.

I’d gone to the movies to watch a Star Wars marathon. I didn’t like Star Wars all that much, but it was Chad’s weekend with the kids, and I needed something to distract me.

And I found quite the distraction.

I was standing at the concession counter, waiting on my popcorn order, when a man came up next to me. I glanced up at him, and my heart leaped to my throat. He was unusually handsome—the kind of handsome that made me feel immediately insecure in my own appearance. He was rugged, big, and broad in that sexy grab-me-and-throw-me-over-your-shoulder kind of way.

I felt an indescribable urge to run my hands through his reddish-brown hair and down across his thick beard. I was hit with an unexpected flush of desire, which only grew worse when he cocked his head and raked his teeth over the corner of his bottom lip. He was checking me out, and that was something I wasn’t used to. In fact, I hadn’t had a man look at me like that in quite some time.

He spoke to me, but I didn’t hear what he said.

Not that it mattered. I was too flustered to even respond.

I took my popcorn and made a beeline for my movie. I quickly found a seat and thought that would be the end of it, and I’d never see the handsome stranger again. But just as the previews started to roll, he came into the theater and sat a few rows down from me. We shared a few lingering glances, and before I even knew what was happening, he was following me into the women’s bathroom.

He locked the door, and everything from there was a heart-pulsing, desire-infused blur. It was amazing. Just thinking about it gave my stomach butterflies, and a part of me had hoped that this chance meeting was the beginning of something more.

But sadly, I hadn’t crossed paths with the handsome stranger since that night, and I feared I never would.

Maybe Ryan was right.

Some people simply aren’t destined to find their Mr. Right.

Rooster

“Are you sure this is the right address?”

“29 Chess Creek Road.” Torch looked down at the GPS on his phone, then went over to the mailbox. “It’s what Bones sent, but it doesn’t seem right, does it?”

“No, but then again, you saw Bruton’s place. Wasn’t much to it either,” I scoffed as I looked over at the modest two-bedroom home. Bruton was a very wealthy man who dealt with some of the most infamous criminals in the world, but he didn’t live in an extravagant house. His place looked just like all the others in town. “Besides, we got no idea who this Sawyer person is.”

“Yeah, but you saw those deposits. Some of them were pretty hefty. You’d think he’d be living high on the hog.”

He was right. The deposits ranged anywhere from two to ten grand each, but we had no way of knowing what the deposits were for—but we knew Bruton and the dealings he’d done. That was enough for us to be leery of the guy and why Prez wanted us to try and figure out who he really was.

Wrath and Savage were parked on the side street while Torch and I claimed a spot across the street. We’d been there for hours, but there’d been no sign of the infamous Sawyer Grant. Torch began shifting in his seat, and I knew he was beginning to lose his patience when a white Ford pickup pulled into the drive. I gave him a nudge and said, “Hey, check it out.”

We both watched silently as a weathered maintenance truck pulled into the drive and parked. Seconds later, the door opened, and a man who looked to be in his late fifties got out and started up to the front door. He was wearing a pair of worn janitor-like coveralls, which made him look like a run-of-the-mill maintenance man, but there was something about this guy.

He walked with an air of dignity, like a man with purpose.

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