Total pages in book: 34
Estimated words: 31905 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 160(@200wpm)___ 128(@250wpm)___ 106(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 31905 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 160(@200wpm)___ 128(@250wpm)___ 106(@300wpm)
I set the e-reader down and thought about anything that would cool my libido, then I tried to get back to work. However, my mind kept wandering back to the story, and not the sex—well…not only the sexy part. I was curious about the suspense, wondering how she would resolve the conflict with the villain and between the main couple. After a half hour of staring at my computer and getting nothing done, I told myself that in order to do thorough research on Thea, it was important for me to read her book.
I’d always been an extremely fast reader, so I finished in a few hours. Then I downloaded the next one in the series.
More research.
Several hours later, a knock on my office door startled me out of Thea’s fictional world once again. My work involved a lot of intense focus and, often, very sensitive information. If I wasn’t in my office when working, then I was in the SCIF—or Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility—also called a skiff room. So everyone knocked before entering, even my superiors.
That gave me time to hide away my e-reader before I called out for them to enter.
It was King and Blaze, the president and VP of my MC. They’d just been in a meeting with Echo and wanted to fill me in. After they left, I was tempted to go back to Thea’s books, but I had shit to do. Reluctantly, I went back to my deep dive on Violet and put together a dossier, then sent it to Echo in a secure email.
Two days later, I’d devoured two more of Thea’s books and was downloading the next one when I got a text from Echo. Jeff, the guy we were surveilling, was on the phone with some associates, and he wanted me to monitor the trap and trace we’d set up. Unfortunately, it was useless although we learned about a meeting set for the next day.
I texted with the prez during the call, and we set up a plan.
When Jeff hung up, Echo’s number immediately flashed on my cell phone screen.
“You get it?” he asked when I answered on the first ring.
“Too many relays,” I replied with a frustrated grunt. “These fuckers aren’t messing around. Whoever is in charge has deep pockets.”
“Dammit,” he muttered. “We’ll have to put a tail on both of them after their meeting.”
“Already on it,” I assured him as I worked through the little information we’d gained from Jeff and his associate. It wasn’t much, but I had produced results with less. “Sent a text to Prez, and he’s sending Ink and Shadow to go with you.”
Both men were club enforcers and knew how to stay out of sight. Shadow had picked up his skills as a former thief, and Ink had ties to the southern mafia, who’d given him many skills that came in very handy.
“Kevlar and Cross are comin’ to guard your woman,” I added. Kevlar was our sergeant at arms, and Cross was our captain. They were both big guys who were exceptionally talented with weapons and had backgrounds in mixed martial arts.
“Great,” he replied. “Tell Ink and Shadow to meet me at the library at eleven thirty.”
“Got it.”
During the time leading up to the meeting, I continued pursuing information about anyone and anything that might have been connected to Jeff and the people he worked with and for. When I dug up some new financial documents, I sent them to our treasurer, Ace, to do some forensic accounting magic.
The man was brilliant with money and kept the MC accounts more than flush. However, he’d been given his road name because of his gambling. He was a fucking ace and rarely lost. He’d cleaned out several patches while he’d been a prospect. It wasn’t an addiction, though—he knew when to stop, and he wasn’t reckless. Which only contributed to his lethal talent with the cards. He was very, very good.
Something was off about the businesses, but we hadn’t yet figured out exactly what it was. Then some clues began to take shape as we realized that several of the shell companies were more likely to be owned by a woman. Since we’d recently discovered that women were not the only targets of this group, it made sense that the boss, Gene, would have a female among the higher-ups.
But when Jeff’s meeting was over, we had brothers on his tail and on the associates he’d met with.
To our shock, it turned out that the person in charge spelled their name J-E-A-N, rather than G-E-N-E. The boss was a motherfucking woman.
This new insight into the ring gave me a fuck of a lot more to work with and a new player to assess. I told the boys to give me twenty-four hours—give or take a few hours—to put together everything I could find with all the information I’d already gathered.