Total pages in book: 211
Estimated words: 201554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1008(@200wpm)___ 806(@250wpm)___ 672(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 201554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1008(@200wpm)___ 806(@250wpm)___ 672(@300wpm)
I frown. “Or they wanted to talk to me alone, in my father’s suite.” I kiss Harper. “Stay with Savage. I’ll be right back.”
“Stay with Jesse,” Savage rebuts and waves Jesse in our direction. He lifts a hand my direction. “I’m going with you.”
“Stay with Harper,” I say. “This could be a ploy to get me apart from her. I want her safe.”
“And what about you?” Harper asks. “Who protects you?”
“Me,” I say, eyeing Savage. “I could kick his big ass, if I had to and if he keeps telling those bad dad jokes I might.”
Savage snorts. “Let’s spar, man. Name the day and place.”
“Not today,” I say. “Stay with her, Savage. Bring her up in fifteen.”
I don’t give either a chance to argue. I cut away from them and make my way to the nearest stairwell. Once I’m inside, I start the walk up, only to reach the door one level higher as Isaac does the same coming from the other direction. I’d assume it to be a set-up if he didn’t look so damn uncomfortable, his expression sour. I’m betting he knew I was headed to the room, compliments of the nurse he sweet-talked. He didn’t know I was taking the stairs. “What the fuck are you even doing here?” he demands, predictably attacking when he feels trapped.
“More like what the fuck was our father doing here to see me in the first place, Isaac? What did he want?”
“He thought you were going to come at us because of Harper’s attack. He thought he could convince you otherwise. Obviously, he was wrong or he wouldn’t be in that bed right now.”
I take a step toward him and to his credit, he doesn’t back up. “We both know I didn’t do that to him.” I take another step. He sways slightly. He wants to bolt. “We both know you hired a hitman to kill him.”
“You bastard.” He swings at me.
I catch his wrist and shove him against the wall. “Do you really want to fight me, brother?” I ask. “Because I have a lot of turning the other cheek to make up for.”
He laughs. “Hit me. Your violence will speak worlds to the police.”
“Are you going to have them check your balls after I bust them? Because I’d like to stay and watch.”
The color drains from his face. “I didn’t hire a fucking hitman.”
“You’re in trouble,” I say. “We both know it. That trouble has now landed on my doorstep and I want it off.”
“I told you to leave back in Denver. I told you to get the fuck away.”
“And yet Gigi not only wanted my help, she took off. She’s in hiding instead of here, by her son’s bed. What is she afraid of, Isaac? You or the mob, who I know you’ve fucked around with and pissed off.”
“My business is not your business.”
“You made it my business by going after Harper.”
“I didn’t go after Harper.”
“How much do you owe them?”
He spits in my face. I don’t so much as flinch. “Let’s be clear, Isaac. I don’t have to bust your balls. The mob will cut them off. And if you were counting on Dad dying and leaving you the money, you have a problem. He’s going to make it and if you kill him now, you’ll get attention you don’t want and neither does the mob. They might just kill you to cut off the bleeding.” I release him. “You need me. Get smart and ask for help before you take everyone down with you.” I turn to the door and open it, leaving him in the stairwell. And yes, I wipe his disgusting spit away.
A few minutes and queries later, I’m standing in a suite with an empty bed and a sitting area. I enter the room expecting something, though I don’t know what. I walk into the bathroom and attached to the mirror is an envelope that reads “Eric Mitchell” and it’s not coded. This is not the same kind of message as before. I grab the envelope and right when I would open it, a tingling sensation slides up and down my spine. I slide the envelope into my pocket and exit the bathroom, my eyes searching the room. It’s empty, but someone was here.
I walk to the door and look left and right down the hallway, but I find no one. It’s a quiet floor and a quiet moment. I step back into the room and pull out the piece of paper from the envelope that reads:
Eric–
You can’t just let Isaac do what he has to do, can you? You’re pushing the wrong people. If you keep pushing, I’m going to make you king and then you’ll owe me. You can pay me my fucking money or I can take Harper as payment. Your move, savant. And that move is to look the other direction, and then back away.