Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 75734 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75734 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Those three things were going to bother me.
Fourteen
Blaise
“You’re gonna have to handle this shit,” Gage said to me as he leaned back in the leather chair and propped his boot-clad feet up onto the desk in front of him. “Levi’s ass is too hotheaded, and he’ll end up behind bars again. Huck runs this shop. Without this place, we have no fucking cover.”
I didn’t move from where I stood, staring out the window across the room. Gage didn’t have to say why he couldn’t do it. We both knew the ranks. He was dead last. My father wouldn’t allow it. Gage wasn’t family blood. Even if he was as close as family and I trusted him with my life, it didn’t matter.
Running a hand through my hair, I cursed under my breath. I had known this day would come eventually. This hadn’t been a secret. Nothing about this life had ever been kept from me.
My father hadn’t allowed me a childhood, like Trev had been given. There had been no pool parties and video games in my youth. Trev wasn’t completely helpless. He was a Hughes, and with that had come training. Under that charming smile and carefree persona of his, he had what he needed to survive. But he didn’t have the power to shut off everything else.
“How much does he owe?” I asked finally, shifting my gaze to Gage.
“Two hundred,” he replied with a disgusted look. “Levi should have watched it closer.”
I nodded and sighed. “I’ll handle it,” I said with finality.
Gage looked relieved.
“Are we sure that’s all he owes?” I asked Gage as I walked over to pick up the paperwork on the desk.
“Yeah,” he replied. “Levi checked it all out.”
I should have caught this before now. I knew it. Gage fucking knew it. This was on me. My head had been elsewhere. They didn’t know yet. I wasn’t ready for them to know. It wasn’t time. Too much was still undecided. If those stupid fuckers hadn’t been so damn greedy, it wouldn’t have had to come to an end so soon. Addicts were all the same. Why my father hadn’t let me handle that shit sooner, I didn’t know. His reason was weak. Deep down, he blamed himself.
The door to the office opened, and Huck walked inside.
“Made a decision yet?” he asked as he looked at me.
I’d never been given that power. The decision had been made for me years ago.
“I made the decision when I ordered the kill. This is just the next move,” I said.
Huck smirked then as he put a cigarette between his lips.
“When are you going to get her?” he asked.
I didn’t look up from the paperwork in my hands when I replied, “She’s already here.”
Fifteen
Madeline
The expensive dress, professionally styled hair, and red-soled heels didn’t give me a sense of belonging. Instead, I felt more like an imposter. Whenever I passed a mirror and caught a glimpse of my reflection, it startled me. I didn’t recognize the woman looking back at me.
It was as if I had been dropped in the middle of a movie and expected to blend in without knowing the plot. Finding my place in the stables had been easy. It was comfortable. But this was a different world from Moses Mile. The elite of the horse racing world mingled with the wealth and power of those in high places.
Here I stood, among them, wearing the silver dress Melanie had chosen for me, feeling like everyone who looked at me saw the girl from the wrong side of town. A glass of champagne in my right hand slightly trembled, and I had to will myself to relax.
I could make it through this evening. It was important to the Houstons, and I owed them.
“You still haven’t taken a drink,” Saxon said as he came to stand beside me. “Drink it, Maddy. It’ll calm your nerves. Then, you can go dance with me and appease my mother.”
I glanced over at him and forced a smile. “Do I look nervous?” I asked him.
“No,” he replied. “You look stunning. That’s all the people here will see.”
I felt a blush warm my cheeks. I lifted the glass to my lips and drank slowly.
“That’ll help,” he said with a grin.
Seeing him in a tux, all clean-shaven and his hair smoothed and not in a messy disarray, had been shocking. He appeared older and intimidating—until he flashed his dimples at me.
“I’m not sure what I am expected to do here,” I said honestly.
Saxon shrugged. “Look beautiful—which you do—dance, and enjoy yourself. Drink the champagne, eat the food—although if they offer you the shrimp on that black shit, don’t take one. It’s disgusting, trust me.”
I smiled and felt a laugh bubble inside my chest.
Saxon raised his eyebrows. “I made that mistake once. Never again.”
I gave him one nod. “Noted.”