Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 143382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 717(@200wpm)___ 574(@250wpm)___ 478(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 143382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 717(@200wpm)___ 574(@250wpm)___ 478(@300wpm)
“That little motherfucker,” Titus growled. “Who’d he take, baby?” he asked me.
“My friend at the homeless camp. His name is Homer,” I told him.
I was wrong.
The expression he had on his face before was sheer benevolence.
Now, he had a face full of murder.
“Those fuckers,” he groused. “Pieces of shit, every one of ’em. Less than shit. Whatever the fuck that is.”
“We need to find him, sir,” I said.
Another swift mood change when he smiled. “Sir. That’s sweet. But all my girls call me Titus. I make the pissants call me sir.”
I nodded.
“You done good findin’ those women and settin’ that new crew of badasses on those dickweeds who snatched ’em,” Titus declared (yep, our reputation had gone a lot farther than expected). “But you gotta give these boys a wide berth. They’re no good. Until the other crews form an alliance to wipe them out, or a cartel gets wind of their shit, they just gotta do what they do.”
“Homer doesn’t touch anything without having a plastic bag over his hand,” I shared. “I don’t think he can wait while they do what they gotta do.”
Titus stroked his chin in thought.
“We’re not going in to get him,” Raye piped up. “We’re sending the new crew of badasses after Homer.”
“That makes me feel better, baby,” Titus replied. “And I asked around about that band of boys. Word is, they got their shit tight.”
We all nodded to confirm the Hottie Squad had their shit tight.
“Even so, they got no idea what they’re walking into with that den of snakes,” Titus finished.
My heart took a hit with that, and I looked at Raye. I could tell the minute I saw her face her heart sustained the same.
“Javi shoulda known better,” Titus muttered. “That shocked the shit out of me when I heard what went down.”
“He didn’t call the order,” I told him. “Joaquim had a beef.”
One of his brows drew down, the other went way up. “You know Javi?”
“Her brother is a Soldier,” Jinx offered up intel I would rather not have shared.
That blew him away. “You’re Easy’s sister?”
Easy?
“She sure is,” Jinx confirmed.
Wait.
Jeff’s street name was Easy?
Wait again.
My baby brother had a street name?
And it was Easy?
“Man’s solid. Why’s he not here helping?” Titus asked.
Some of this wouldn’t have been something I shared. But we were all in now.
“They needed to lay low because these guys went after them because of what Joaquim did,” I answered.
He nodded. “Joaq, he was a fighter. He was also a hothead.” Titus tapped his bald skull with fingers that were clenching his cigar. “He didn’t think before he acted. Damn waste. Jamal…?” He shook his head. “Gotta give a brother props for loyalty, but…shit.”
“Javi and Jeff are pretty busted up about it,” I told him.
“Thicker than blood,” Titus replied. “Doin’ the good work. Or they were.”
I pressed my lips together.
Titus turned to Jinx. “Been wantin’ to meet this new crew.”
Jinx looked at us in expectation.
“You mean, you want to meet the Nightingale men?” Luna asked.
“Can you arrange that?” Titus asked back.
“Will you tell us what you know about Clown and his people?” I parried.
“Darlin’, I’ll tell those boys anything they wanna know, they got the balls to clean up that shitshow.”
Oh, they had the balls. I just wanted to keep those balls—all of them, but it must be said one set in particular—healthy and functioning. And for that to happen, they needed to know what they were up against.
“One second,” I said quickly, and stepped outside the garage, pulling out my phone.
Raye came with me and huddled close as I made the call to Eric.
I put it on speaker.
He answered on one ring.
“How you hanging in there, sweetheart?” he asked as greeting.
“Hey, you’re on speaker. And, well…okay, I’m here with the girls at the garage of a guy named Titus. I think his street name is—”
“Wait. Stop. You’re at Titus’s garage?” he asked.
I caught Raye’s gaze. “You know Titus?”
“Everyone knows of Titus. But I haven’t had the pleasure.”
“Well, he knows Clown and I think a lot more, and he says he’ll tell you guys because he wants to meet you.”
No hesitation, Eric announced, “We’ll be there in twenty.”
Whoa.
Seemed Titus was the real deal, and I already kinda knew that with the Camaro and portrait.
“Wait!” I cried, thinking he was going to hang up.
“What?” Eric asked.
I took two gigantic steps away from Titus’s door, Raye came with and huddled even closer, before I whispered, “Who is this guy?”
“Ex-dealer in his youth. Ran a big crew. He got tagged, did five years, got out, kitted out his garage with his drug money, and whatever part of the street Javi doesn’t run, Titus runs it.”
“Like, he’s a vigilante?”
“No. Like, he’s a negotiator.”
“What does that mean?”
“That means he wasn’t a big fan of doing time, or wasting years selling narcotics, and he’s less of a fan of brothers killing brothers for stupid shit like turf wars and vendettas. He knows enough to know he can’t stop people from committing illegal acts, but he does his part to make sure it doesn’t get out of hand. In other words, he keeps the peace.”