Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 96514 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96514 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
“If you want to keep her alive, we have to work with the Five Families,” Marcello pointed out. “They have more men, more resources.”
“No,” I said without a second thought. “They want too much. We will find another way.”
“What choice do we have?” Marcello flew down the hill, taking another hard turn, and the scent of the bay floated through the windows. “We can’t admit any new Knights until after Legare. And after what you said to Alex before dinner, she’ll never marry you. What is wrong with you? You think a woman wants to hear that you’ll break her finger to put your ring on it?”
“Fuck off,” I shot back. “Don’t talk to me about Alex. And Wellington… I can’t believe that motherfucker offered her the choice between us. Over my dead fucking body.”
“Your jealousy is fucking with your head.” He sighed. “It’s making you irrational. Do you hear yourself?”
“We’re done talking about her.” I turned up the radio, and “Bring the Pain” by Method Man cranked through the speakers. “Focus on the shipment.”
I bobbed my head to the rap beat, ignoring my brother as the marina came into view.
“No, we’re talking about her,” he yelled over the music, anger dripping from his tone.
“Maybe we should take her to a safe house,” I suggested. “Somewhere no one will find her.”
He turned off the radio and snarled at me. “She’s safer with us.”
I flipped through my cell phone and opened the security app on my phone. Scrolling through the cameras in the house, I searched for Alex and Roman. She laid on the floor in my mother’s studio, dressed in black pajama shorts with pink dots and a matching tank top.
Alex dipped the tip of her brush into a crimson-colored paint and swirled it across the canvas. Another Devil painting. I loved watching my girl create her masterpieces. She was so talented, a natural artist like my mother.
Roman sat in a chair by the door, watching her with his hand on his chest, his fingers a few inches from his gun. He was the only person on our team I trusted as much as Marcello, but I needed to see her. To check on her. Stalk her like I had done from a distance for most of her life.
“I have a bad feeling about this, Marcello.” My heart hammered in my chest as he parked at the marina. “Kurti won’t stop until Alex is dead.”
“Roman is with her,” he assured me. “The guards are working double shifts. No one will touch her. I promise.”
“I know, but…” I pinched the bridge of my nose between my fingers and sighed. “Fuck, I’m not thinking straight. Ever since she’s come back to Devil’s Creek, I’m all fucked up.”
He snickered. “No shit. You haven’t been right since she left.”
“I can’t lose her. She’s too important to our survival.”
“I know.” He reached over and squeezed my shoulder. “And you won’t.”
After her brother had disappeared, Alex stormed into my house and demanded answers. She kicked, punched, and screamed until she slumped to the floor in front of me. I wanted to tell her the truth, but I had to protect my secrets.
Until last month, I thought it was for the best. I knew she would wait for me. She always did. But the harsh reality of my world was about to crash down on her with the force of a hurricane.
“If I tell her the truth, she’ll run.” I rubbed a hand over my face, trying so damn hard to keep my shit together. “That’s what she does when she’s scared.”
“If we had more Initiates, we’d have more coverage across the country. The longer we delay Legare, the worse this will get. The Knights need a queen. So put your fucking pride aside and get on your hands and knees and beg Alex to marry your miserable ass.”
“I would give her anything,” I confessed. “I just wish I knew what she wanted.”
“You know what she wants,” he snapped.
Love. Something I didn’t understand. My mother was the last person to tell me she loved me, to show me how much she cared. That was almost twenty years ago.
“Stop acting like a dick if you want Alex to marry you.”
Staring out the window, I sighed. “I’m trying.”
“No, you’re not. Locking her in a bedroom won’t change her mind. And it sure as hell will not keep her safe.”
“Fine,” I countered. “What would you do?”
Because I was a masochist, I needed to know. How would my little brother win my girl over?
Marcello pushed open his car door, and the interior lights came on. “You can’t keep avoiding her because you feel guilty about fucking up with the Albanians. It’s time to move on and deal with them before they come for her again.”
“You’re right.” I groaned. “She deserves better.”
“Fucking right she does.” His jaw tensed as he looked over at me, one foot out the door. “If she were mine, I would have married her years ago. We wouldn’t be in this position right now.”