Read Riordan for Free Online Page B

Her aunts were as crafty as they came, and not the glitter and glue kind.
    ~~~
    Riordan had been summoned home. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but he knew better
    than to tell them he was too busy. When he told his dad that it would take him a little bit to have
    Christina clear his morning, his dad told him to clear the day. Whatever was going on, he wasn’t
    happy with him. Riordan thought about getting another dozen roses to take to Mom, but thought
    she might shove them in his face.
    Christina had told him just before she’d left yesterday that she had the information on The
    Bakery. Then she’d asked him if he read the article that she’d sent him. He told her that he’d
    forgotten about it. For the rest of the day, she only left him notes if she wanted him to know
    something, and then when he had to talk to her, she was short and ill-tempered. There had to be
    something going on that no one had told him about. And just as he was pulling up the link she’d
    sent him, his dad had called to tell him to come home. Now.
    His mom led him to the living room, a room that was warm and comfortable usually, but
    today felt frosty. His mom asked him to have a seat. When he was seated, she told him how
    disappointed she was in him.
    “In me? What did I do?” She looked at his dad, and so did he. “I’ve been working. And if
    this is about that woman, I want you to know how sorry I am that I embarrassed you with this.
    I’ve been trying to figure out how to tell her I’m sorry, too, but she’s been out of the shop. I
    honestly don’t think I did anything wrong with her, but I’m going to apologize to her so you
    won’t be mad at me.”
    “She was hurt when she pulled a gun on me. I didn’t mean to startle her. It was entirely my
    fault, but she was hurting and I felt terrible about it. Even more after I was told what had
    happened to her. You should know that you hurt her, too, when you jumped at her.”
    Riordan felt the roaring in his head when his dad said gun. He was standing up when his
    mom barked at him to sit. Riordan nearly missed the chair when he sat down, but he was as hot
    as he could be about this shit. She was going to pay for this. And pay dearly.
    “What do you plan to do, Riordan? Go down there and demand that she tell you what she
    was thinking when your father just told you it was his fault? Will you shoot her, maybe? Make
    her mad at you before you get all the facts?” He glared at his mom, and she glared back. “You
    can take that look off your face right now, before I make you regret it.”
    “She tried to shoot Dad and you’re defending her?” He looked at his dad as he continued.
    “What the hell is she doing with a gun anyway? Is that how she gets what she wants from
    people? Is that why you’re thinking of investing in her little shop, because she’s using
    extortion?”
    “She’s a vet. A wounded vet who nearly died less than two years ago while fighting for our
    country.” That had him leaning back in his chair, and anything that might have spilled from his
    mouth felt like bile in his throat. His mom sat down, her voice low now that she was upset. And
    she was. He could see that now. “I’ve seen her. Her legs. And her aunts told me what little they
    know of what happened to her. Her commanding officer only told them a little, and Storm tells
    them nothing is wrong, of course. I’ve talked to her, and I think she believes she’s protecting
    them.”
    “Protecting them from what?” She said she didn’t know. “I don’t understand what this has to
    do with her pulling a gun on Dad. What the hell was she thinking?”
    “She wasn’t. Thinking, I mean. And as I said, it’s more my fault than hers.” He asked him
    how. “I went there that day to see her. To tell her…to tell her that we’d raised you better than
    you’d acted before. But the shop was busy, and Lynn told me to go on back to see her. She was
    in the kitchen at the table when I got there. It