Total pages in book: 42
Estimated words: 39046 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 195(@200wpm)___ 156(@250wpm)___ 130(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 39046 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 195(@200wpm)___ 156(@250wpm)___ 130(@300wpm)
It could not happen. Already, I wasn’t myself around him. It was like I lost all control of who I was. He made me so fucking agitated, but when he looked at me like that, all that agitation melted away.
He left me feeling… discombobulated. And what the fuck was I supposed to do with that feeling? How was I supposed to operate when he left me feeling so goddamn unhinged?
“Tough luck, Rurik,” I finally said after I’d chewed a bite of my food and felt a little calmer. Like I could fucking breathe again. “You put me in the GBMC. I’m always put in situations you can’t control.”
When I looked at him, his jaw was tight, and for a second, I for sure thought he was about to grab me by the front of my shirt, drag me across the table, and kiss the ever living fuck out of me. But then, he closed his eyes and took another sip of his coffee, reigning himself in just like that. Always in control. Always calm.
God, I fucking hated him.
10
Malik
Rurik passed me a flip phone and a slip of paper, dragging my attention from the passing scenery outside the window. I took it from him without a word and flipped the device open, typing in the digits he’d given me. The SUV hit a pothole, almost making me hit the wrong number, and I shot a scowl at the driver.
“You couldn’t have avoided that?” I snapped, irritation lining my voice.
“Ignore him,” Rurik told Denis. “Malik is in a foul mood for some unknown reason.”
Denis cast Rurik a look through the rearview mirror that practically screamed when isn’t he? My skin flushed hot, and my fingers tightened around the stupid fucking phone in my hand.
Everyone was on a mission to piss me off today, apparently. And it didn’t help that Rurik and I had another dumb fight over a wire after we left the restaurant—a fight I won. But he did not want to drop it. I knew Rurik was trying to keep me safe or whatever, but a wire was a sure fire of way of getting my head blown off.
I’d like to keep it firmly on my shoulders—thanks.
“If you two shut the fuck up for two goddamn seconds, I can make this phone call,” I seethed.
Rurik smirked at me. “Denis didn’t even say a word, Malik.”
I sneered at him, my upper lip curling. Rurik hummed and sat back in his seat, turning his head to look out the window. Muttering under my breath about what a dick Rurik was, I pressed the button with the little green phone on it and lifted the phone to my ear. It rang three times before a deep voice asked, “If you’re a fucking spam caller—”
“Not a spam caller,” I said, interrupting him. I hadn’t heard Kaleen’s voice since I got out, and honestly, it was kind of nice to hear the voice of someone who’d once been on my side. Sure, we’d been behind bars and being cellmates had been the center of our friendship, if it could even be called that, but being in prison would either make or break someone.
Kaleen and I decided to let it make us.
“Who the fuck are you?” Kaleen growled, a dangerous edge leaking into his voice. “I don’t like fucking games.”
“It’s Malik,” I told him.
He was quiet for a moment—long enough that I had to pull the phone away from my ear to make sure the call hadn’t been dropped.
“Malik fucking Carter?” he finally asked, his voice a bit lighter now. I swore, his moods flipped like a fucking switch. It’d always been alarming. Bunking with Kaleen had always been a trip. I never knew what version of him I was going to wake up to. “Well, fuck me with a brick, brother. How the fuck did you get this number?”
“I’m resourceful,” I said, leaving it at that. I didn’t want him to know Rurik existed, and I was not pondering over that. “I was hoping we could meet and talk.”
He grunted, a clear sign his mood was souring again. “This about the Ghost Born bullshit?” he asked. “Got wind you were part of their club now. Bunch of pussies if you ask me. If you were looking for somewhere to belong, bro, I could’ve brought you into the Savage Dreams.”
I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose, already over this conversation. “It’s a lot more complicated than that,” I admitted. I didn’t want to belong to any club, but I did. And my hands were tied. And to be honest, yeah—the GBMC had kept my ass out of prison and kept my hands virtually clean so my parole officer couldn’t come after me.
I knew most of that had to do with the man next to me, but I refused to dwell on that too much. Shit was already complicated between me and Rurik, and last night had blurred too many lines in my mind, leaving me on edge and feeling like a ticking time bomb.