Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 81076 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81076 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Grateful I grabbed my cross-body purse today—the only one that would have stayed with me through being attacked and nearly knocked off my feet—I release Matty long enough to guide it up and over my head. When I turn back, his gaze is fixed on mine.
“What?” I ask, arching a brow.
“Why were you at the cupcake shop?” he asks again, but in a calmer voice than before, making me think the immediate danger has passed.
“Fine, I was being nosy.” I pull out the small blue pouch containing my first aid supplies. “But not in a bad way. I just wanted to know why you were there on Thanksgiving. You have family, and I know they celebrate together.” I rip open an alcohol wipe and unfold the damp, cool paper. “Starling dropped off the pet turkeys to hang out in my backyard this morning before she and Christian headed over to your parents’ house, and she said you were going to be there. She even said you were bringing desserts, which explained why you were at the cupcake shop yesterday, but not today.”
I press the wipe gently to Matty’s knuckles as I ask, “So why were you at the cupcake shop today?”
His jaw clenches but he doesn’t flinch as I dab at his wounds. “I warned you several times, nicely, to leave this alone, Nora. But you didn’t listen. So, I’m going to tell you one more time, in a way that will hopefully make an impression.” He pauses, gazing so deep into my eyes that my brain starts to squirm a little. “Don’t ask me about the cupcake shop or the mob or Cassie Ann Sweetwater ever again. I can’t tell you anything and I won’t tell you anything and if you somehow manage to figure it out on your own, you’re going to wish like hell you didn’t. Right now, as things stand, there’s still a chance to turn this around. A slim chance, but a chance. I can tell Wimpy you came to the shop today to confront me about some cheating rumors or something.”
“Wimpy?” I whisper, dread swelling progressively larger inside of me.
“The guy I punched. I’ll tell him I got crazy when I saw his hands on you and threw hands without thinking,” he explains. “Then, I’ll tell him that we broke up because you’re a goody-two-shoes, who doesn’t understand the true nature of my life or business, and that you’ll never interfere with our plans again. And that’s what you’ll do. From now on, you stay away from me and the cupcake shop. If you see me coming, you cross the street, and don’t so much as swing your car by that side of town. You never say a word about the Sweetwaters or what you think you know about their organization. You forget you ever met Cassie Ann Sweetwater. If you do all of that, then maybe, maybe things go back to the way they were.”
He leans closer, until I can feel his warm breath on my lips as he adds, “But if you keep pushing this, Nora, you’re going to ruin your life and my life and neither of us will be able to go home again. Is that what you want?”
I swallow past the fear and elation glomming together in my throat as the truth hits like a lightning bolt. “Oh my God, you’re in the FBI.”
I know I’m right when he curses and brings his fist down hard enough on the console between us to send fresh blood sliding down his damaged hand.
Chapter Two
MATTHEW “MATTY” EUGENE MCGUIRE
A man stuck between a
job that’s sworn him to silence,
and the only woman who’s ever made him
want to spill all his secrets.
“It’s okay! I won’t tell anyone, I promise!” Nora holds up her hands, the alcohol wipe dangling between two fingers like a tiny white flag of surrender.
But that flag is stained red with my blood and my superiors aren’t going to find this breach in my cover amusing.
At all.
I have to convince Nora she’s wrong. It’s the only way to keep my operation moving forward, keep myself on track to retirement in just a few short days, and keep her safe from all the various forms of fallout that can result from interfering with a CIA investigation into the mob. It doesn’t matter that the Sweetwaters are soft and cuddly gangsters when compared to their more murderous counterparts, they’ve still been known to hurt people.
The entire Beechwood family came down with life-threatening food poisoning not once, but five times after challenging the Sweetwaters’ control of the region’s faux designer purse trade. It wasn’t until one of the Beechwood children almost died from a Salmonella infection that they finally pulled up stakes and got out of town.
Then there was the case of Gareth Swanson, an up-and-coming shoe counterfeiter, who thought he could cut into the Sweetwaters’ illegal Canadian export business without them noticing. Gareth simply…disappeared one day, leaving behind a house full of nearly perfect imposter Gucci trainers, two hamsters, and his toothbrush.