Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 78598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Cairo shot up. “We don’t take orders from the likes of Dante. Forget Ellis and his fucking party. I’m finding my father. Davidson has to know where he is. I’m doing what I should’ve done weeks ago and picking him up.”
“You didn’t do it weeks ago because you couldn’t.” Roan darted in his path. “We don’t know where the hell he goes after his shifts.”
“Then I’ll drag him out of the station.”
“And get yourself shot?”
Four heads swiveled around—to me. They looked like they didn’t know I was standing there.
I pushed on. “Cairo, you know you can’t do that or you would’ve already.”
“This doesn’t concern you, de Souza.”
“The hell it doesn’t.” I abandoned the blender and stormed out of the kitchen, planting myself in front of them half-naked in nothing but Jacques’s shirt. “He’s ready for you to come for him. That’s exactly what he wants: an excuse. Why all of a sudden do you want to give him one?”
“Because as our resident genius just reasoned,” Roan sliced in, “it doesn’t matter if we kill the Ellises. Dante is never going to let the sheriff go. If I was Dante, I’d let my enemies take out my other enemies, have my pet cop throw them in prison for it, then one by one clean up the rest of the people in my way—without the Bedlam Boys around to stop me.”
“Of course,” I whispered, sinking onto the couch. “Why would Dante let him go? He has no reason to even if you do everything he asks. Davidson as acting sheriff, then actual sheriff, works out just fine for him.”
“We have to get to my dad before the party,” Cairo said. “Which is this Friday.”
My eyes bugged. “Friday? You’ve been looking for him for weeks. How are you supposed to find him in five days?”
Cairo swung around. “See? Even she sees the problem. Why are we wasting time on this party and giving Dante what he wants when we know it doesn’t end well for us either way? The only move is to find my dad and take away the leverage he has over us.”
“Jacques is on it,” Arsenio reminded.
“Jacques seems a bit busy getting his dick wet.” Cairo smiled mockingly at me. “You’ve got one tasty pussy, de Souza, but my old man isn’t dying for it. You helped Jacques come up with the list. Tell me their names.”
Was it wrong that I was secretly pleased he complimented me? I hadn’t gotten a nice word out of Cairo for weeks. “I don’t know their names. Jacques blocked them out before he let me read the reports.”
His eyes narrowed to slits. “You’re lying. Why the fuck would he do that?”
“To protect the privacy of the innocent people who didn’t consent to us sneaking into their therapy sessions. Cairo, if Jacques said he can find the Crew, and therefore your father, I believe him,” I said, talking over what would’ve been a scathing retort. “Of course you can’t kill an entire family just because Dante tells you to, but the Black Letter Crew knows us. They’re watching us.
“For now, you guys should go through the motions like you’re following orders. Don’t give him a reason to think you’re going to disobey him because Dante is not bluffing.” My voice grew thick. “They’ll kill him and then move on to someone you care about. It’ll never end, and we’ll still be right where we started—under their thumb.”
“I’m not under anyone’s thumb,” he snapped, but had nothing else to say to me. None of them did.
I got to my feet. “I say you crash that party. Get close to Steven Ellis, lure him somewhere private, and tell him he and his sons are in danger. Show him that note,” I said, gesturing to the crumpled letter. “Dante wants it to be everyone against us, so flip the tables on him. One thing we do know is that if Ellis was a crazed, homicidal nutjob, he wouldn’t have broken with Cavendish. He doesn’t want you guys dead, but I bet he’d join forces against the people who want him dead.”
“Ridiculous,” Arsenio dismissed. “The guy has no reason to trust us, or us him. He could betray us just as easily as we know Dante will. We’re talking about a fortune that’ll keep the Ellises rich for generations to come. People tend to find the homicidal nutjob within themselves when that kind of money is on the line.”
Shrugging, I padded to the kitchen to return to making my sandwich and smoothie. “Okay, it’s your families on the line, so I won’t tell you what to do. It just occurs to me that a man who has spent years secretly surveying and snatching up every bit of land for sale in this town, would know all the best and secluded places to keep a hostage.