Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 76365 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76365 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
The three of us sighed in unison. The room was full of angry tension waiting to snap. Maybe it was better for Frankie to be missing. We’d need to redo construction with the fight about to take place here.
“I’m going to fucking kill him,” Ari ground out through clenched teeth, her hands balled into fists at her sides. “Smack the shit out of him until he’s in the hospital like I was.”
“I don’t doubt it, angel,” Lotto murmured, “but we kind of need him.”
“Just one night in the hospital.” Ari turned to us. Tears shone in her eyes, and she blinked them back. “Like he forced me to do yesterday, and I believed him like an idiot.”
“We all did.” I stepped forward and squeezed her upper arm. “I’m sure he has a good reason.”
“Good reason or not, he just made this so much harder for us.” Lotto rubbed his forehead and pushed off of the front desk. “I need to call the Perks and tell them no changes. Arrange to meet with Troy. Fuck, I have a headache. Ari, you can hit him once. Or maybe twice for me.”
“Much more than that.” She frowned. “When I see him, I’m going to rip his balls off and serve them to him on a platter.”
My thighs clenched at the threat. I hoped Frankie liked meatball soup, ’cause based on Ari’s fury, his balls were about to be the main ingredient.
“Look, here’s what we’re going to do. Lotto, you deal with the Perks and Troy.” I fished into my back pocket and pulled out my wallet, taking out a twenty. “Ari, go buy one of those bath bombs you like, go home, and relax.”
She stared at Andrew Jackson’s face with a frown. “I might need two bath bombs.”
I put the $20 back into my wallet and pulled out a $50. “And a bottle of wine.”
“Fat chance,” she complained but took the money. “Wine’s for watching Love Island. Jack is for imagining fifty ways to make Frankie cry.”
“What about you?” Lotto asked with a smirk. “Since you’re our new leader and all. Isn’t that my job?”
“Funny,” I bit back sarcastically. “I’ll wait here for Frankie to get back and talk some sense into him.”
“Tell him he owes you fifty bucks. Since you just saved his balls and all.” Lotto wrapped an arm around Ari’s waist and tugged her toward the front door. “Come on, angel, I’ll take you home.”
“Give him hell for me, Bones,” Ari called over her shoulder. I waved at her then watched Lotto’s car peel out of the empty parking lot.
As soon as I was alone, I allowed my shoulders to slump forward. Fuck Frankie. It was hard to keep a cool demeanor when I wanted to join Ari in roasting the son of a bitch. What the fuck was he thinking? Freakshow was long gone, and for good reason. The damn clown. Was he trying to relive his glory days? Prove a point? Fuck things up? I’d know the reason if he knew how to communicate more than grunts and groans.
Just as I was about to Google “how to communicate with cavemen,” gravel crunched beneath tires and a new car pulled into the lot. Frankie’s car. He stepped out and tossed his sunglasses into the driver’s seat. His entire body was as tight as a violin string as he threw open the front door to Smiley’s.
“Where’s everyone?” he asked stiffly.
I eyed him. Nice dress shirt, pressed pants, glinting watch, slicked-back hair. Yep, definitely made a visit to Troy Godwin.
“I told them to go home since our trainer was nowhere to be found.” I crossed my arms over my chest and frowned. “What the fuck are you thinking, idiot? Pulling Ari from the match?”
Frankie’s glare narrowed. “I see Troy called.”
“River made a house call.” That made Frankie’s eyebrows lift in surprise before they settled back into annoyance. “Wanted to know why they suddenly need another guy.”
“Well?”
“What the fuck do you think?” I demanded. “Of course we don’t, because Ari is going to do this.”
“The hell she will.”
“What, over your dead body?” I took a step closer to him and puffed out my chest. “’Cause that’s what it’s going to be. Your fucking funeral.”
Frankie mirrored my pose and let out an incredulous laugh. “Funny. Someone else said the same thing to me earlier.”
“If Troy Godwin is giving you good advice, then your choice is fucked up.”
“But it’s mine to make.” He stalked forward, his thick body pressing up against mine. I heaved a breath. His expression was etched with fury, and my heart thumped at the dark look he gave me.
“Because you’re a big man, aren’t you, Freakshow?” I countered. I pushed at his chest with two of my fingers but he didn’t even budge. “Saying it’s all for Ari’s sake when you just want to relive your glory days.”