Total pages in book: 206
Estimated words: 192184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 961(@200wpm)___ 769(@250wpm)___ 641(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 192184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 961(@200wpm)___ 769(@250wpm)___ 641(@300wpm)
She sat downstairs on the arm of the chair I was in while me, Dare, and Dex all ate. She said she didn’t want any but kept snagging food off my plate while we were there. Anyone else stuck their fingers in my food they’d lose said fingers. I just kept giving her looks but she was totally oblivious. Dare, however, wasn’t. I could tell by his smirking he found it comical because he knew me and saw I was letting her away with it despite being mildly annoyed about it. As mildly annoying as it was it meant there was a level of relaxation and familiarity between her and I that had come and I didn’t want to mess with that.
There were two other guys outside on patrol. We’d decided to move Dex and Nino up. Dex to Nino’s old job (previously Earl’s job) and Nino to Jimmy’s post, which was mixed security for the family and other shit that we needed someone we could truly trust on. Dare was briefing the security team at Pop’s house later.
When Nino arrived and reached for one of the XBOX controllers Dare said to him, “We’ve gotta talk business with you. No gaming right now.”
She just got up and cleared the food, kissed me, and then headed upstairs. I didn’t have to get her to leave the room. It was like she was made for this life. But I wasn’t keeping her in it. It was ending and tonight was going to be the beginning of that.
After a productive meeting with the guys, Dare and I strategized some more. We pulled an all-nighter and then Dare and I went to see Pop at around 7:00 in the morning. I drove us down there and then afterwards dropped Dare off back at the office where he was gonna take care of a few things and then crash on the couch for a few hours.
As I came into the bedroom at around nine o’clock in the morning, I found Tia still asleep. I climbed into bed with her. She squirmed into me. She was naked.
“You’re naked,” I muttered into her ear.
She sleepily answered, “You weren’t here to give me a shirt. And so are you.”
“Good girl,” I said and pulled her tight against me.
She was breathing slow and steady and I decided to just let her sleep. I had a lot of shit on my mind.
I thought back to Dare and I going to see Pop.
“Boys,” he’d said hoarsely when he saw us.
“Pop,” we’d said in unison.
I sat in the chair beside the bed and my brother was leaning against the counter off to the side of the bed.
“What happened?” he asked.
“Romero’s dealt with,” I stated.
He nodded a little.
“Yeah,” I nodded, too. “They got Jimmy. He’s dead.”
“Dario told me yesterday,” Pop replied.
I knew he knew this but I needed to lead with that.
“Listen, Pop. I need autonomy. Now. You good with that?”
He nodded a little. “Of course, my boy. I can’t exactly do much from here.”
“For good, Pop.”
He winced and shifted a little. “For good?”
“Yeah, Pop. See, we found out some stuff we’re not too thrilled with. There’s a mess on our hands. My sister’s a widow. We need to clean up. You good with that?”
Pop swallowed hard and closed his eyes.
“We’re done dipping into the business you were in on in Morelia. We know it’s gone on elsewhere, too. It’s bad news. You interested in continuing that from your retirement villa, so be it. Me and Dare, we’re out. It has zilch to do with Ferrano Enterprises.”
Pop had looked to my brother and my brother nodded.
“Two against one, uh?” Pop snickered.
Dare piped up. “We don’t like some of what we found out, Pop. But we’re happy to continue with the existing business structure for now. Tommy and I have a few changes in mind but slowly we’ll make those changes so it doesn’t hurt the company and so it preserves relationships that have been built that we still need. We think it’s best we get you to sign over with lawyers. And you retire. Or, you don’t retire but we part ways with the business here. You made a deal that he got married he’d take over. He’s getting married so it’s time.”
I added, “You got a problem with us running things the way we want to run them, clean, we part ways now businesswise. You give us the reins you continue to get residuals of everything we decide to keep doing. You don’t, we leave it in your hands and we go do something else.”
Pop gave a slight shrug without looking us in the eyes, “We’ll talk after. Let me think about it.”
I didn’t like that one bit. It felt like a game I wasn’t interested in playing.
“All right, Pop. Dare and I, we’ll be back in the morning. Sleep well. Glad you’re all right.”