Colorado 03 Lady Luck by Kristen Ashley Read Free Book Online

care.
    Walker looked across the street to their
hotel thinking about Lexie and her shades and high heels and
short-shorts and bright smile in foster care then, thirty-four
years later, finding her shit tied to the likes of Shift.
    Fuck.
    Jackson spoke in his ear. “Ty, you’re
marryin’ this girl, you don’t know this shit?”
    “Both of us prefer to look to the future,”
he lied again though he had no clue what Lexie preferred. However,
that statement was pure bullshit from him. He was living in the
past and would until mistakes were rectified.
    Then, if he had a future, he’d look to
it.
    “That’s good news,” Tate said quietly,
misreading him and Walker thought it was good this conversation was
happening on the phone. He’d learned a lot in prison but he didn’t
expect part of that was pulling shit over on Tatum Jackson.
“Though, that’s true, why am I doin’ what I’m doin’?”
    “Can’t be too careful.”
    “She know about you?”
    “She picked me up outside the penitentiary
yesterday.”
    Silence then Tate started digging, this time
somewhere else.
    “You meet her in Dallas before you came home
and that shit went down with Fuller and Misty?”
    “Yep.” Another lie.
    “Again, brother, seen her picture. How the
fuck you leave that behind?”
    “I think me bein’ an idiot was proved in a
courtroom, Tate.”
    This was no lie.
    “Don’t wanna stir up demons, Ty, but that
shit, it’s not on you and everyone in town knows it. That was all
Fuller.”
    He knew that. Oh yeah, he fucking knew
that.
    He didn’t respond.
    “It was me they targeted, fuck, anyone would
have gone down,” Tate told him. “Don’t get buried under that shit.
Rise above.”
    Again, Walker didn’t respond.
    Jackson waited for it then gave up.
    “I’ll keep diggin’. Call you back. It’s
tomorrow. When’s the wedding?”
    “She’s shoppin’ for a dress.”
    Or at least he hoped she was. He gave her a
wad of cash and he had the valet ticket. The ticket was not
insurance. All he had was hope she wouldn’t bolt but he wouldn’t
blame her if she did. The fact that she didn’t walk out the door
when he gave her the chance still surprised him. It sucked but he
had Shift to thank for her not leaving. She was desperate, he
played on that. He didn’t like it but it worked in his favor and he
had a mission, he was focused, so he used it.
    That said, this was done, he’d set her up
and, she was smart, she’d go onto a life where she never again had
to make desperate, fucked up decisions like marrying an ex-con she
didn’t know.
    His response got a low chuckle from Jackson
then, “I’m sure she is.” Pause then, “I suspect she’s good people,
you’re marryin’ her so I’m glad she gave you a second chance, saw
through that shit, knows what she’s gettin’.”
    She had no fucking clue.
    Time to move on. So he did, out from under
the awning and down the sidewalk toward the jewelry store.
    “How’s Jonas?”
    “Growin’ so fast, Laurie can’t keep him in
clothes.”
    “Laurie?”
    Pause then, “Fuck, man, forgot. I got
married.”
    Walker stopped dead and he heard someone
behind him let out a squeak and scuttle around him but he didn’t
move.
    “No shit?”
    A definite smile in his voice before, “No
shit.”
    “The woman from the news,” Walker
stated.
    “Yeah.”
    He tried to remember if he’d seen any photos
of her when all that shit went down with Tate and that serial
killer who had kidnapped his woman and stabbed her with the intent
to rape her with that knife before he killed her which, luckily, he
didn’t get around to doing. They’d reported it on television and
during a variety of sports commentator shows considering Tate had a
very short-lived career as a linebacker in the NFL.
    He’d watched it in the joint, seen photos of
Tate, none of his woman.
    But it didn’t care if she was butt ugly. She
wasn’t Neeta, Tate’s old bitch from high school and on and off for
what seemed would