Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 108119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 541(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 541(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
I tried not to think of his kiss, his reaction, the way his lips slid across mine in a way I’d never experienced before.
I could count the tiny breaths he took between each assault, the way his muscles flexed beneath my fingertips like any second he was going to slam me against the wall harder and rip my clothes off.
The thought should terrify me.
Except it was different; his kiss was different.
Or maybe I was just glamorizing the fact that I was being held hostage, sold by a family who used me, to a new master who would end up doing the exact same thing.
The idea deflated me as I made my way into class and sat down in the very back.
Students trickled in.
Nobody looked my way.
And I wondered what made me so invisible to the people around me. When I was punished by those closest to me by being seen?
To everyone else I was a nobody.
But my own family? They punished me for things I couldn’t control.
And Andrei, seemed angry at his own reaction.
What was so special about a girl with blackish brown hair and blue eyes? What’s so special about me?
And sadly.
Even after two different classes.
I came up with absolutely nothing.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Andrei
I drove like hell back to the club, pissed that she saw it, the slip, for one brief second she’d shocked the hell out of me, and she knew it too.
Well played, six thirty-two, well played.
I got out of the car and made my way into the bar, waving Ax over. “Any changes with the girls today?”
He sighed and jerked his head to the right. “New batch came in around two a.m., same blacked out plates, same make and model of the car. With so many people living in this area, hell people living outside it, we still can’t place the car, but…” He shifted on his feet a bit. “We did get some intel from one of the girls…”
“What?” I crossed my arms. “Other than screaming, what did she offer?”
Ax paled a bit and then whispered, “She said she’s known your father since she was seventeen.”
I didn’t move. Didn’t flinch, even though somewhere, deep down, I knew who it was, I knew she would have bright blond hair and a pretty smile, I knew she would have icy blue eyes. I knew she would be older. I knew she would look like Andi, and I knew why.
“Tell no one,” I snapped. “And take me to her now.”
“Already have her waiting in the purple lounge by herself, boss.”
“This is why you’re my favorite,” I muttered under my breath. “You don’t wait to get told shit.”
“Waiting gets you killed, Drei. You know this, I know this, and you’d start a war with my family if you killed me. I’m sorta fucking useful.”
I rolled my eyes. “And there’s that Abandonato arrogance.”
“One of our best traits.” He grinned. “You want the cameras on?”
I bit my lip. “Not this time.”
He gave me a funny look. “If you’re sure.”
“I’m sure you should go take a break.”
“You’re not gonna kill her?”
“Why would I kill someone valuable?”
“Oh, I don’t know, Drei, because you’ve lost your temper over a fucking french fry before.”
I rolled my eyes. “That was a year ago, and I was hungry.”
He sighed. “Let me call one of the guys.”
He was being rational.
Then again, he hadn’t just been kissed and played by a woman who should be dead. Who had a giant target on her back.
I exhaled through my lips. “Fine, call Phoenix.”
“I call Phoenix, Phoenix calls Tex…”
I pinched the bridge of my nose with my fingertips. “Call them all but tell them I won’t wait. They have twelve minutes.”
I heard a sound behind me and went still.
“I may have already told them.” Ax grinned. “See? I’m needed.”
“Go be arrogant somewhere else where I’m not tempted to strangle you, mmkay?”
“Good talk.” He slapped me on the back just as all the Italian bosses walked in with a few of their men and captains.
My bartender looked ready to duck under the table.
It was rare to have all of them here at once.
Then again, we’d been trying to take down the ring for a decade. So, it was necessary, especially if we had information.
“How was school?” Tex asked wrapping an arm around me tight, as he pulled a toothpick out of his mouth and grinned.
“How’s the tiny dick?” I snapped right back.
Dante strolled up. “It could be there but nobody has seen it, kind of like bed bugs… you wake up with a bite, but if you can’t see them, are they really there?”
Chase smirked. “Dante comparing Tex’s dick to bed bugs, I don’t think I’ve ever been so proud of my protégé.”
“Except that one time when he killed two people with one bullet.” Nixon held out his hand. “Ax called us right away figured we should do this as a team, since that’s what we are… right Andrei?” He narrowed his eyes. “A team… that shares information? Regardless of how damning?”