Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 128290 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128290 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
“All you have to do is say yes and we’ll make this official here and now. You’ll be mine and there will be nothing that outsider you’re living with or anyone else can do about it.”
A frown pulls at my brows. A real one.
Because…what?
Philip doesn’t have the power to make this contract—that may or may not even exist anymore—with Enzo “go away.” He can’t promise no backlash for going back on an arrangement signed off on by my father and the Greyson Union. He can’t guarantee a clean sweep any more than he can promise peace among the rivaling organizations—something that will never happen.
“How?” I find myself rasping, though I’m not sure why I ask.
Everyone knows there’s only one way he could even allow those words to leave his mouth, let alone dare to push things this far, asking me to marry him on the spot when the man I’m supposed to marry waits for me at a different altar.
I thought he might ask me to consider his offer and find a way to stall the wedding or fuck, I don’t know.
But this?
This can only mean one thing.
Philip Mitchell has someone important on his side.
The question is…
Who the fuck is it?
I swallow, turning to Nicholas. “Should we grab my bag from the car?”
Nicholas smiles wide. His eyes lifting to the man over my shoulder in triumph.
I look back then, doing my best to soften my gaze. “Meet you under the arch in five?”
Philip lifts my left hand, my glove-covered hand, and I grind my teeth as his lips come down over the place Enzo’s name is imprinted. “Make it four?”
Forcing a low laugh, I pull away, following Nicholas to the car. I quickly pass him up, jolting to a stop and spinning toward him with wide, horror-filled eyes.
“What?” He tenses, head swiveling from right to left.
“I think there’s a cellphone in the glovebox. I totally forgot I asked the servants to stash it for me for an emergency. What if they track it?”
He throws himself at the car. “Fuck!” he shouts, tearing at the handle.
Quickly, I reach the back door, rip it open, and hurl myself inside.
Victoria squeezes my arm and jumps out, my bag hanging from her fingers.
I hear Nicholas’s sigh of relief and the car shakes, letting me know he’s climbed out. “No phone. They must have known not to give you an out in case you tried to run. Here, let me take the bag.”
Footsteps carry them away and I shake my head.
I didn’t want to have to do this; I was simply leading her to the man she was really after and then headed back to marry my man, but something tells me things are going to get interesting here and we have to stay to catch the final act. When the more venomous snake, the one I didn’t see coming, reveals himself. I tug my dress up, pressing the small button on the top of the ankle monitor, officially clicking the damn thing on.
I drop my head back, sighing into the car.
So much for a quick detour.
Chapter
Thirty-One
Enzo
My heart is raging, crashing against my rib cage like a ball to a bat. Mino’s mouth is moving, but I don’t hear him. My eyes snap across the road, taking in everything from the number of people walking to the length of the grass. I’ve catalogued every make and model of every vehicle we’ve passed on the way here and memorized more than half of the license plates.
The Vicente Vineyards.
How the fuck did they end up there?
I’ve worked with the Vicentes. They’re long-time clients of mine.
I’ll kill them all, tape an oxygen tank to their faces with twenty-four hours of air, tie weights around the sons’ ankles, and drop them over the side of my boat into my very own lake. Make them panic and live through the nightmare as they slowly die.
I’ll shave the—
“Enzo.” Mino slaps at my chest, snapping me out of it. “Get out of your fucking head.”
“He’s dead.”
“Yes, I know.”
“Everyone there is dead. All of them. Every fucking person.”
Mino nods, but there’s tension in his shoulders. “Maybe I should go in first.”
I laugh, loudly, taking my guns from the holsters and inspecting them before stuffing them back, and checking the two strapped to my ankles. After that, I run my fingers over the knives in my suit insert and the switchblade in my front pocket. “How much longer?”
“Two minutes.”
I nod, glaring straight out the window.
“Bastian, his crew, and Rayo and his men are following.”
“Fuck Bastian. I let the Brays into my house because of him and look where we are. Never should have let her have my girl’s number.”
“Yeah.” Mino sighs. “If only we could kill him.”
“If he needs to die, he will.”
Mino says nothing to that.
He knows if she’s hurt, everyone will hurt, and being Bronx lost her signal seven minutes into the feed, we’re going in blind. Loaded down with weapons and manpower, but still blind.