Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 77579 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77579 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
“How’d they meet?”
“College. Dormed together. Seems like Halle could never decide what to be, so she went for a little bit of everything. Never finished. Dropped out recently, actually.”
Something probably went wrong with the shop or her grandfather to prompt her to give up on schooling.
“Know where the grandfather is?”
“What is this? Amateur hour?” Miko asked, rolling his eyes. “Not only know where he is, but how bad he was beaten.”
“And?”
“And it was bad,” he said, shaking his head. “More than that, though, nurse I know says they found some other shit wrong with him while they were examining him, so he’s likely gonna be in there for a bit. Might even need to go to a step-down place after.”
“Okay. Now, want to really fucking impress me?” I asked, watching him cast a Try me look in my direction as he weaved effortlessly around a car door that someone threw open without looking. “Where is Halle staying?”
“Well, see, that was a little harder,” he said, but the way his lips twitched told me it wasn’t impossible. “Spent the day at the library before heading to The Empress. Hasn’t left since. Last I heard.”
“The Empress?” I asked, lip curling.
I’d given her enough money to get a room at literally any of the luxury hotels in the city. She could be fine dining on fucking caviar. And she was staying at The Empress?
“Women,” Miko said, shaking his head. “Never can know what’s going on in their heads,” he added.
He would know. He had three sisters.
His mom and dad were some of the rare few who still got on like lovesick teenagers. The evidence of that was the fact that they had seven kids. Four sons, three daughters. So many progeny, in fact, that he’d needed to move them out to fucking Greenwich to fit them all, choosing to commute into the city each day for work shit.
“You got her number?” I asked.
Reaching in his pocket, he passed the paper toward me.
She had surprisingly neat handwriting. Nothing curvy or overly feminine.
I reached for my phone, shooting off a text. Then waited for the response.
Okay.
That was it.
No thanks.
Just okay.
“Prolly woke her up,” Miko said, as if reading my thoughts.
“When’s the last time you got a raise?” I asked, shaking my head at him.
“Dunno. Two weeks ago? Why? You wanna give me more?” he asked, smiling.
“I’m gonna need some men,” I said as we stopped at a light, watching a bunch of women clad in bubble coats rush across the street. I should have been wishing it was warm, and they were all in their barely-there club dresses. But, for some reason, I didn’t give any of them a second thought.
“How many?”
“Need someone on the old man,” I said. “Day and night.”
“Three men on a rotation would work for that,” he said. “Three more for the girl?”
My knee-jerk response was to double that. Two sets of eyes and hands if they were needed.
But twelve of them taken full-time away from their jobs? Jobs that kicked up money to not only me, but the organization as a whole?
It could be overkill.
“Yeah,” I agreed, nodding. “Got any ideas?”
“You’re pissed at Leon, right?” he asked, shooting me a devious smile.
“He got anyone worthwhile under him to steal?”
“I got some ideas. Two for sure I think deserve more than what Leon is offering. Got more to offer than he lets ‘em.”
“Okay. I want to meet them,” I said. “Tonight,” I added.
“Got it. I’ll grab the others from other soldiers, try to keep shit even.”
“That’d be good,” I agreed. “Bring them to me to work shit out. We need to figure out a schedule by the end of the night.”
“On it,” he said as he double-parked in front of my apartment building. “Anything else?” he asked.
“Try to find some time to sleep,” I suggested.
“I can sleep when I’m a multi-millionaire,” he said, shrugging it off.
Like I said.
Young. Hungry.
I went into my building, catching sight of Lily’s parents as I went toward the elevators.
We all pretended we didn’t know each other. It was for the best that way.
But I was suddenly worrying if they were at risk too. Especially since Lily showed up in court that one day. She’d wanted to show her support. And it had been nice to see her able to actually leave the apartment for a change. But I’d made sure to remind her just how fucking dangerous it was both to my case, and to her safety, to be seen with me.
As far as I could tell, she hadn’t left her apartment since.
Sure, that might have sucked for her mental health. But it was probably for the best for her physical well-being if these fuckheads were feeling vengeful.
I made it up to my apartment just twenty minutes before the first of Miko’s recommended men showed up in the lobby, looking to be let up.