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)
“I’ll pawn him off on my brother,” I said, kind of excited at the prospect of torturing one of my brothers. What can I say? Big brothers never get sick of tormenting their younger siblings.
“Okay,” Max agreed, pulling back to look at me. “So, be extra careful then. Because it wouldn’t be nearly as fun spending the next week with you in bed injured.”
“Sugar, even then, I’d rally,” I said, snagging her chin with my fingers, then leaning down to seal my lips to hers.
Things were getting a little hot and heavy when there was a knock at the door that had us springing apart.
“Ride’s here,” Zeno called.
“Gun,” I said, handing it to her before we both made our way out into the common area.
Zeno looked at ease with his feet up on the coffee table and the remote in his hand.
“I’m hanging,” he said, and I saw a gun sitting on top of his laptop beside him.
“Thanks, man,” I said, nodding.
Sure, Zeno was a bit of an… unconventional mafia guy. But he’d been raised in the life. He could handle shit if he ever needed to. And the instinct to protect was strong.
“So, kids, are we ready for some comedy gold?” Zeno asked, patting the couch for Max to join him and Chuck.
I felt her gaze on me the whole way out of the door, but I tried to push that away as I followed Brio and Nico out of my building and toward the waiting car.
I needed to focus.
The more I could concentrate, the easier this job would be. Then it would be done.
And Max and I could finally get some alone time.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Miko
“Place is dystopian,” Brio declared as we waited outside of the hotel for the fourth hour in a row.
We’d all been on stakeouts before.
But that didn’t mean we were immune to the boredom and frustration. It only took the first hour for us all to catch up with one another’s lives.
So then it was just… waiting.
Shifting in seats.
Complaining.
“Yeah. Feel like the place must be a sausage fest,” Nico said. “What woman would feel safe without at least one other human to hear her if she needed help?”
We’d seen three people coming and going so far.
All of them had been men.
“How much this going for a night?” Brio asked.
“Almost six hundred,” I told him.
“Six hundred. And no one to call to bring you a fresh towel or meal?”
“I think the place is for bragging rights only at this point,” I said. I’d scrolled their social media on my burner in the second hour of sitting around. Their account was tagged in endless pictures of the rooms that were surrounded with TV screens.
I imagined the only thing that happened in those rooms were men with their hands around their cocks and porn playing all around them.
“How’s he paying for this shit if he hasn’t unloaded the diamonds yet?” Nico asked.
“Probably running up his cards,” I said, shrugging. “Thinking he will pay ‘em off when he gets the cash. He—“
“Wait, got some movement,” Brio said, sitting up in the passenger seat. “That him?” he asked. “He’s limping.”
Sure enough, through the windows that took up nearly the whole front of the hotel, I could see a man exiting the elevator. There was a distinct lameness in his gait as his hand reached into his back pocket, pulling out a small box.
His cigarettes.
Not even a bullet in the leg could get in the way of his next smoke, it seemed.
All the better for us.
“Let’s hope he goes around the… yep,” Nico said, nodding. “Predictable.”
With that, he put the car into drive and took us down the side street Devon was moving toward, smoke curling around his body as he hunched forward in the cold night air.
“Get ready,” Nico said as he pulled just in front of Devon.
Brio and I flew out of the SUV.
Brio was faster than I was, clamping a hand over Devon’s mouth and wrestling him toward the car.
I jumped in the back, reaching for Devon and dragging him in.
Brio jumped in the other side, grabbing his gun, and bringing down the heel of the gun into Devon’s head. The position was just right, making the bastard go still in an instant.
“He won’t be out long,” I said as his dead weight settled half on me.
“Doesn’t need to be,” Brio said, shrugging. “Besides, I can hit ‘em again. What’s a little concussion when he’s gonna be dead soon anyway?”
He had a point.
“Though, doesn’t seem like this idiot got treatment for his leg,” Brio went on, inspecting the red stain seeping through Devon’s jeans and onto Brio’s leg. “Or even did much for it himself. If we gave ‘em a few days, he’d probably die in that creepy-ass hotel.”
“I don’t want to waste a couple of days,” I said as Nico turned the car into a narrow alley between buildings.