Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 67975 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67975 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
“First of all,” I growl, stepping up to Cohen. “Sit the fuck down. This is not a war we’re havin’ here, it’s a war we’re finishin’ so we don’t lose any more lives.”
“By fuckin’ giving into him? By admitting to the entire fuckin’ world we’re weak as fuck? What sort of plan is that? What sort of fuckin’ President comes up with such a stupid idea?”
That’s it.
I’m done with him and his fucking insults.
He’s angry.
He’s hurt.
He’s betrayed.
But he is pushing my buttons.
“Back. The. Fuck. Down,” I warn.
“Or what?” he growls, getting up in my face.
I raise my fist, and I hit him.
The first blow seems to come as a shock, because as his head whips around and then comes back, he looks at me like I’ve just fucking taken out his best friend. Then, his look is replaced with rage, and he bellows angrily as his fist flies into my face. It connects with my jaw, and pain radiates through my fucking skull.
Then, it’s on.
It’s on so god damned hard we’re on the ground in seconds, fists flying, grunting, angry pants as we beat into each other, release all the rage we’ve both had pent up for fucking months.
“Stop it!”
I hear a woman’s scream and lift my head to see Zariah walking into the club, her face scrunched in horror as we both beat into each other on the ground.
She pulls out her gun and aims it at us. “Stop it right now.”
Cohen’s fist lands on my face once more, and the hit is powerful enough to knock me off him. I roll to my back, blood trickling into my mouth, panting with rage. I look over to him, and he’s standing, his fist bloodied. He looks down at me, his eyes still filled with rage, and then he disappears out the door.
I glance up at Zariah, who is still pointing her gun at me. She puts it away and reaches out a hand. I don’t fucking take it, I push up to my feet and swipe my face with the back of my hand. “What’re you doin’ here?”
“I want to talk to you about Bennett, he hasn’t shown up for work in two days and ...”
“We’ve got him.”
She blinks. “What?”
“We’ve. Got. Him.”
“Are you insane?” she cries. “Why would you do something so stupid? Like it’s not risky enough.”
Yap, yap, yap.
I turn to her and growl my response. “First of all, don’t come into my fuckin’ club throwin’ around insults. Second of all, we’ve got him because we’re makin’ a deal with Dax. He wants him returned, and in return he’s goin’ to give us what we want.”
She shakes her head, confused. “You’re making a deal with Dax?”
“Yeah, he wants Bennett and he wants us to back down. We’re not backin’ down, of course, but he’s goin’ to think we are. It’ll give us the chance to go in undetected once more. He’s got two people I want, and he’s goin’ to return them when we return Bennett and declare we’re goin’ to leave this one alone.”
“He’s not stupid, Alarick. He’s going to suspect you’re going to keep looking into him.”
“Which is why we’ll leave it for some months. He’ll think we’ve given up. Trust me on that.”
She frowns. “How, exactly, are you going to take him down?”
“Waverly. You.”
“You want me involved still?”
“Yes, and I want Waverly to keep doin’ what she’s doin’. You tell me exactly what we need to bring this operation down, and we’ll make sure she gets it.”
“You’re handing this over to the police?”
I glance at her. “I don’t need any more blood on my hands, so yeah.”
“Are you sure this is a good idea? I can’t see Dax just giving up that easily.”
“Here’s the thing about Dax, his operation is worth more than the war with me. If he keeps going like this, attention is going to be brought to him, and he’s going to end up in a fuck load of trouble. That ain’t worth it to him. So he figures if he gives me what I want, I’ll back off and he can carry on doing what he’s doing. My guess? Someone higher above him is ordering this to be dealt with, and he’s not getting an option.”
“You do make some sense,” Zariah agrees. “I just feel like there’s going to be more to this, call it cop intuition.”
“Maybe there will be, but the fact of the matter is that we’re not in a place right now to fight anymore. One thing is for sure, Dax will kill anyone that gets in his way and right now we can’t afford anymore lives.”
Zariah nods. “Count me in, then. Let me know when you’re going to do the exchange of Bennett, I’m glad you’re choosing to let him go because if we were to be kept, it would cause a world of problems.”