Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 76082 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76082 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
9
ANIMAL
"Twenty-five fucking thousand?" Eagle-eye's not yelling, but he doesn't fucking have to. The tightness in his voice is like a pistol hammer about to slam into the bullet. Jupiter stands up and growls by his side. “This is Animal’s fault, isn’t it?” He looks my way.
“We needed to do something to make a statement,” Badass says quickly, trying to take the heat for me like he always does. “I agreed.”
“It’s not like they’re going to get their fucking money,” I grumble. I’m not a fucking kid anymore. I can fight my own battles. “So fuck, I went a little over budget. It's for a good fucking cause.” Yeah, the sexiest woman I've met, maybe ever. God fucking knows I'd rather be down in my room fucking her silly than up here getting chewed out by Prez.
Fuck, she kissed like she actually wanted it, but that’s fucked up. Isn’t it?
The party's going full tilt below us, but the insulated door to Eagle-eye's office overlooking the common room keeps the worst of the noise out. He doesn't do the parties much anymore, not after Miriam started hanging here. He should just fucking take her for his old lady and be done with it. She's not here tonight, though. Probably in with Emily and her grandkids, in their house out back.
Too bad. He's less grumpy when she's around.
“A little over budget? I was expecting you to come back with some stolen rims or product we could analyze to figure out their source. Not a fucking woman. Shit, no matter the mission, all you assholes find an excuse to drag pussy back to the club.”
"What the fuck was I supposed to do?" Prez or not, I won’t back down just because he's fucking angry. "Let them sell her? They’re trafficking, and I can't stop the sale of every girl, but I could stop hers. So I fucking did."
"It wouldn't have fucking hurt you to call me for confirmation first." His growl is like an industrial size chipper-shredder.
Quickshot shakes his head. "There wasn’t time. Besides, it did buy us a hook to sink into the Unwanted. That's what you were after, wasn't it?"
"A hook, not a fifteen grand IOU. I'd rather have them owing us shit. Twenty-five grand for a fucking girl. Jesus." He wipes a hand down his weathered face
"What if it was Faith? They're about the same age. Wouldn't you want someone to do the fucking same for her?"
For a second, Eagle-eye looks like he's going to deck me for putting the damn thought of his daughter on auction in his head, but then he eases back to sit his weight onto his desk. "You're right. Jesus fuck, I hate that you spent so much of my fucking money on it, but you did a good thing."
I grin. By most standards we’re criminals ourselves, but we’re the fucking closest thing South Side has to good guys. It might not say much since our competition is the Mob, a corrupt government, and shady cops, but it is what it is.
Badass shrugs. "If we wipe the Unwanted off the face of the earth, we might even get the ten grand back. I don't think there's a single fucker in this city who would miss them."
Eagle-eye shakes his head. "We're not going nuclear yet. It's obvious there's more going on. Someone's using them for a front, and we need to find out who the fuck is hiding in the shadows or it's just going to be a bigger mess later. The Unwanted have never been in a position to make these kinds of scores on their own. I’m not going to sit back and let those fuckers turn South Side into a shithole, or bring us back to the days of worrying about losing our boys to raids.”
"I’ll set up a meeting," says Quickshot. "I don’t know about their backers, but there’s no way in hell Cain will pass up the chance to sit down with you."
Eagle-eye leans back, hands behind his head. “I’d rather sit through a hundred of Miriam’s chick-flicks than spend ten minutes with that asshole, but fine. I haven’t heard anything about movement in the cartels, so I’m leaning towards this being something local.”
"Mob?" I ask, my mood darkening at the thought.
Me and them, we've had some pretty personal fucking interactions. Ones I'm reminded of every time I look in a fucking mirror. If that's who the Unwanted are fucking around with, I'm gonna personally tear those fuckers apart.
"Working with a shitty MC like them?" Badass shakes his head. “I don’t see it. The Giordanos wouldn’t move on us, not with Alessa here.”
"Someone political, more like it," says Quickshot. "Maybe someone’s decided they have a lot to gain from making a new threat. Worked for Hawthorne, didn’t it? It’s been a few years since he went down." Quickshot grimaces. He took a bullet to the gut back when the old mayor put together an anti-biker task force and we had to fight off police raids. “He’s still behind bars, right?”