Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 110550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Hundreds, if not a thousand enemies. Now to find one cold, ruthless killer in the midst of that all with no guarantee you or your parents have ever met them face to face.
“Yes,” I rasped. “That is... unmanageable.”
Chapter Three
Bang!
“Tell me where Laurel is,” I rasped, “or so help me, I will kill you.”
“Wait! Wait, you d-don’t have to do this!”
“Kenzie?”
“You have three seconds.”
“Kenzie.”
I jerked, glancing up to Genny’s cocked brow. She rolled into my room, two beers riding shotgun on her chair.
“Thanks, but none for me.”
“No one offered you any. These are both for me.” Genny locked her wheels beside my bed and heaved herself on. I looked on in amusement as she propped on my pillows.
“Please, come in. Make yourself comfortable.”
Genny winked. “Already did.”
She wore another Genny-patented outfit. Black see-through mesh top, hot-pink bra, and a pair of shorts she shouldn’t have bothered with because they were doing nothing to cover her behind.
“How are you? Is your leg on the mend?”
“You’re asking how I am after what you’ve been through.”
I glanced away, jaw clenching.
“Ahh. You’re asking how I am because you don’t want to talk about what you went through.”
And her brothers say I’m insightful. Seems to me Genny can see through the bullshit too.
“Hey, I get it. I flipped and sent every Cardinal in the city after that fuck when I found out he took the toe-nibbler. Can’t imagine what you went through, trapped in a hole and not knowing if she was safe. I wouldn’t have the words to talk about it so soon either.”
I swallowed hard, falling on my toe-nibbler. Laurel was fast asleep in her crib, which was now in my bedroom. We got into Cinco that afternoon and the first thing I did was move it in here for her nap. For months we slept apart. Spending the next several or more months sleeping together made sense to me.
“Then let’s not talk about it,” I rasped. “Have you talked to the guys? Did they tell you they’re officially on board with Sienna’s vision?”
“You mean Sienna’s common-sense deduction?” she corrected. “Yeah, they told me about that. Doesn’t change a thing.”
“It might change something. If what this guy really wants is a showdown with your parents, or with St. John like Sienna says, then their returning to the city might bring him out into the open.”
“Oh, yeah?” She grinned wide. “They are in their sixties. You suggesting we ask a couple of seniors to trot out as bait for a maniac who sanctions the death of six-year-olds? Seniors who happen to be my loving mommy and daddies? Damn, girl, you’re vicious.” She put a bottle in my hand and clinked it. “Whatever it takes to get the bastard who messed with your baby.”
“No,” I cried. “I didn’t mean— That’s not what I was saying!”
Genny cracked up. “Sounded like that’s what you were saying.”
“Wow, Genny, I would never suggest using your own parents as bait. I’m saying you’re the bait. If he wants your deaths to drag your parents out of the Hamptons beach house, take away the option. They’re already here safe in the Fairfield. Now he needs another plan that doesn’t involve sending a hundred faceless assassins after you.”
She shook her head, blonde hair practically floating around her. “He would move on to another plan, babe, but not a good one. We’re thinking like my older brother here. If it was Liam and all of his targets holed up in one building that I couldn’t get into, I’d force them out by declaring open season on their gangs. The Cardinals, the Scourges, the Sons of Saint, and every uptight suit that bows down to Liam. He’d slaughter them one after the other, knowing we couldn’t hole up in here, kicking back in the hot tub while our people die. We’d come out and our parents would too. He'd get what he was after either way.”
Genny rubbed her arm. “I’ve survived every attempt to kill me and I’ll survive the ones coming. But I won’t sign my girls’ death warrants. I’ve lost three of them already. I won’t lose any more.”
Slumping over, I dropped my head on my knees. “You’re right. That’s a stupid idea. I should’ve thought of that.”
“Don’t beat yourself up.” Genny thumped my back. “You haven’t learned how to think like a sociopathic killer. That’s not a bad thing, Feisty.”
“So what do we do now?”
“Same thing we were doing before all this started: run our city. He’ll send faceless assassins after us, and we’ll kill them. He’ll try to sabotage us and we’ll stop him. This guy isn’t doing anything that countless others haven’t tried before. The Merchants will never lose.”
I turned on her. “Does this mean after you’re healed, you’re skipping back to Harlow to act like it’s business as usual?”
“It is business as usual,” she stressed, “and I’m in charge of it, not Bugsy. Looking out for my crew includes not leaving them to run my borough while I take a vacation.”