Hearts and Aces (Kelsey's Burden Series Book 7) Kaylie Hunter (books to read this summer TXT) 📖

morning left the door unlocked that he was able to slip out.”

“Damn it, Alex. I’ll have Tyler change the lock so Alex doesn’t have access.” Walking into the family room, I motioned for Wild Card it was time to leave. “You were a lot of help,” I said sarcastically to him as I threw my gloves into the trash.

“I would’ve voted to shoot them and bury their bodies. Much less work.”

“Liar. You would’ve tied them up and left them at the warehouse for the rats.”

“I wasn’t aware rats were an option,” Wild Card said, laughing. “Yes, that’s what I would’ve done then.”

“How do you guys know each other so well?” Shipwreck asked, leading the way down the tunnel back to the main house.

Wild Card chuckled. “Remember me telling you about the crazy stripper I married in Vegas?”

Shipwreck stopped in the middle of the tunnel, looking back at me from head to toe. “That was you?”

“Yeah. I was in a jam.”

“Damn,” Shipwreck said as he stepped into Donovan’s basement and crossed the room. “That’s messed up.”

Storm sat patiently, waiting where I’d ordered him to stay. I tapped my leg twice, and he came over for a scratch behind the ear. “Good boy!” I pointed to the tunnel to the main house. “Go find Beth!”

Storm barked excitedly before racing down the tunnel, tail wagging.

“What’s messed up? That Wild Card married a stripper or that I was stripping in Vegas?” I asked.

“Not a damn thing,” Wild Card said a little louder than necessary as we started down the next tunnel.

I turned back and looked at him, raising an eyebrow.

“Move, woman. I’m ready for lunch.”

“I’m not hungry, but I need some industrial soap and a shower after dumping those buckets. What did you guys feed the prisoners last night?”

“That was Wild Card’s doing,” Shipwreck said. “He dumped a package of ex-lax in their food.”

“Why?”

“You said I couldn’t beat the shit out of them,” Wild Card explained.

Chapter Twenty

After my shower, I decided I needed to dress in full battle gear if I was going to survive the afternoon. I checked myself in the mirror and smirked. I was wearing a dark purple halter top, a form-fitted leather jacket, my favorite pair of ripped, well-worn jeans, and of course, my knee-high heeled boots. My hair was dried straight, accenting the dyed black and silver streaks that my friend Dallas had touched up last week. After some light eye shadow, thick mascara, and heavy eye-liner, I was ready. As Alex would say, I looked bitchen.

Entering the dining room, Tyler whistled.

“You’re way too young, Mr. Tyler.” I blew him a kiss before running up the stairs to Hattie’s room, peeking in to see if she was sleeping.

“Come in, sunshine. I’m awake.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Bored. Doc said I needed to take it easy, but he didn’t order me to stay in bed all day.”

I walked over to her closet and pulled some cotton pants and a soft sweater that I knew she liked. “Get dressed. I’ll send Jackson upstairs to escort you down.”

“Thank goodness. I thought you were going to argue with me, too,” she said as she went into her private bathroom to change.

I left to find Jackson who was in the kitchen helping Reggie. “Can you escort Hattie downstairs? She wants to visit with everyone.”

“Of course,” he said, drying his hands on a towel before walking away.

“Cooper, can you bring Hattie’s rocking chair downstairs?”

“On it.”

“Everyone else, help me move the table further out into the room. We’ll set Hattie’s rocker at the far end so she has more room.”

It took six of us to move the table. Bridget got the couch afghan. Alex fixed another cup of tea. Wild Card came down with the rocker.

“Aunt Kelsey, how come you sometimes call Wild Card: Cooper.”

“Because that’s his real name. Cooper Wesley.”

“Was that his name when you were married to him?”

“That was always his name. If you’re asking if I called him Wild Card when we were married, then yes, sometimes I did. I usually called him Cooper, though.”

Hattie giggled as Jackson carried her down the stairs. “I can walk just fine.”

“Not on my watch,” Jackson said. “It’s our turn to wait hand and foot on you.”

“Nobody said anything about breaking your back, though.”

“Are you challenging my manliness?”

“Oh, dear,” Hattie said. “Kelsey?”

“Quit making her blush,” I said, laughing. “It’s not nice.”

Sara tugged on my pant leg. “Does Hattie really just have the flu?”

“Hattie’s going to be just fine, little bug,” I said, tweaking her nose. “Sometimes when you’re older, it takes longer to get over viruses.”

“Is there anything I can do?”

“Yes. You can go finish your schoolwork so you can play a game with her later when she’s feeling up to it.”

“What about me?” Nicholas asked.

“Well, I bet the dishwasher needs to be emptied, and the trash taken out.”

Nicholas ran into the kitchen.

“That was way too easy,” I whispered to Hattie. “How come they don’t jump into action when I’m sick?”

Hattie looked at me and seemed confused. “You’ve never been sick, have you?”

“She gets sick,” Wild Card said as he set a plate of cheese and crackers on the table. “She just downs a handful of pills and keeps going.”

“Or passes out,” Reggie said, laughing at me. “Remember when you fell onto that table of tomatoes at the grocery store? They rolled everywhere.”

“When was that?” Wild Card asked.

“I didn’t pass out. It was just a dizzy spell,” I said, turning to Reggie. “Can you cut some cantaloupe for Hattie? I’d do it, but I need to check my email.” When Reggie turned away, I looked directly at Wild Card. “It was around the same time I craved apple pies. I only