Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 77344 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77344 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
It wasn’t until we were back in the car that we spoke again.
“Was that your first dead body?” I asked.
“No,” Max said, peeling at her fingertips to get the glue off. “God, no. I’ve seen… so many bodies.”
“On the job?”
“On the streets. New York winters can be brutal, merciless. Then there was, you know, starving. Overdosing. Came across someone stabbed to death in an alley the second week I was on the streets. I’ve seen more bodies than anyone should.” She paused. “Were you close with Henry?”
“No. I mean… no. We talked several times, trying to iron out all the details for the job. But that’s the extent of it. I didn’t want any kind of personal connection. This was work. Not to sound like a dick.”
“I get it,” she said. “Still, this is a lot. You basically heard everything leading up to his murder.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, exhaling hard as I pressed my head back on the rest for a second.
“Did you hear anything? Voices? Snippets of conversation?”
“It was quick. It rang for a while. I think he was about to hang up. Maybe call the cops instead. But then he heard me and he just… he whispered that ‘he’s here.’”
“But didn’t say who ‘he’ was.”
“No,” I said, sighing.
“What about his social media?” Max asked.
“Henry didn’t believe in social media. Said it made people too easy to track down, gave away too many details without you even realizing it. He didn’t have any. Save for his gaming accounts, I guess.”
“We should have taken his phone,” Max said, shaking her head.
“I didn’t see it,” I said, thinking of his neat desk, the rows of screens and their different keyboards.
“What about that guy who found me?” Max asked.
“What about him?”
“Use him to find this guy. I mean, I’m assuming you tracked me down because of facial recognition software. Which is easier than tracking down someone whose name we don’t even know. But he can figure out Henry’s gaming history, right? That’s all stored somewhere. And maybe his text history or—I don’t know—something. That’s his job, right?”
Right.
Zeno was really my only choice, even if I didn’t love the idea of hiring someone in the Family to work on a job I was hiding from the family. That said, honestly, Zeno didn’t seem like someone who cared enough to snitch. He didn’t come across as cutthroat or ambitious. Hell, maybe he didn’t even want to be a capo. I could hire him when I got the position. Set him up for life as a thank-you for working with me discreetly on this.
“That’s a good plan,” I agreed.
“How about we go back to the warehouse now?” she asked.
“Why?”
“We can wait to watch the overnight crew leave instead of come into work. That way, we can just head back to the city early in the morning. Get in touch with your hacker guy. Get him working on this. Time is slipping away. This guy is clearly cleaning up loose ends. How long until the diamonds are gone for good?”
I couldn’t argue with that logic.
There were still several hours before sunrise, but we made our way over to the warehouse anyway, parking closer to the lot so we could see easily even in the dark.
“You have to turn the car off,” Max said. “We could get away with it in the daytime when anyone could be idling in their car for any number of reasons. Not in the middle of the night.”
I hated that she was right about that.
I didn’t like the idea of her being cold. Even if, objectively, she would have a better tolerance for it than I would, given her past history with it.
“Don’t bother,” she added when I tried to blast the heat at full tilt for a moment. “It will chill immediately. Why waste the gas?”
“Alright,” I said, cutting the engine.
“If you want to try to catch a few hours, go ahead. I’m good. I had some sleep,” she added. “And I’m used to being up all night. Besides, you shouldn’t be driving after being awake for more than twenty-four hours.”
“I’m fine.”
“Now who’s being a pain in the ass? There’s no one to impress here with being some sleepless zombie. Get some rest.”
I didn’t plan to.
But not long after my head rested against the window, I knocked the fuck out.
__
“Miko,” a voice called, toying with the edges of consciousness. But I was having dreams about peeling off Max’s clothes and watching her move to straddle me, riding me hard and fast, tits bouncing, eyes liquid heat, lips curling around my name as she came. “Miko, wake up,” the voice tried again.
“No,” I grumbled, trying to cling to the dream, but it was already evaporating right before my eyes.
“Dude, wake the fuck up,” Max demanded, hand suddenly slapping my thigh.
But she must have been reaching out without actually looking because her hand landed a lot higher than I imagined she intended. Her fingers were just an inch or so from my still-straining cock.