Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 95906 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 480(@200wpm)___ 384(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95906 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 480(@200wpm)___ 384(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
I didn’t pay attention to how much time had passed before Micah leaned into me, his arm going around my waist. I pressed a kiss to his temple as I accepted the silent message and turned us so we could begin the short walk back to the car.
“Ready to go home, sweetheart?” I asked.
Micah dropped his head to my shoulder.
“I already am, Con. I already am.”
KING
The nervous energy that flowed through my blood should have been something I’d gotten used to by now, but even after years of taking down the sickest of fucks, it was still there.
These days, it was always there. No sick fuck required.
I couldn’t really explain why I was always on edge. Maybe it had to do with Gio’s return. Maybe it had something to do with watching my brothers find their soulmates one after the other and getting out of “the life.”
Or maybe it’s the fact that you can’t fucking outrun the past, you coward.
“Fuck off,” I muttered to that annoying little voice in my head—the one that never let me bullshit myself.
I sighed and leaned back against the bench and pretended to play on my phone. My quarry wasn’t more than a hundred yards from me. Bile crept up the back of my throat as I watched the man eye the group of teenage boys playing basketball. I could practically see the way his eyes were glazed over with lust as he chose his target.
I’d seen those eyes up close, but I’d been too stupid to acknowledge the truth back then.
I’d been too stupid about a lot of things.
The earbud in my ear caught my attention as my phone dinged. I glanced down and saw what had to be the third message from my brother.
Come on, asshole, don’t blow us off. We’re heading out tomorrow morning.
Con’s message made my chest hurt. Not because of what it said but because everything made my chest hurt when it came to Con these days. I was happy for him and Micah, I really was. But selfish fuck that I was, I also couldn’t get past the confession he’d made to me months earlier.
How had I not seen it?
How had I let the brother of my soul keep that secret for so long?
Why hadn’t I done something, anything, to stop it?
I prided myself on my instincts when it came to my job, but the fucker who’d hurt Con had flown beneath my radar. Even back then when I’d still been a dumb kid, I’d had good instincts. But they’d failed me that day.
They’d failed Con.
I dismissed my brother’s message and returned my attention to my prey. I wasn’t the least bit surprised when my phone rang but I was surprised at the ringtone that filled my ear.
My heart stuttered a bit in my chest even as my thumb automatically hit the accept button.
“Gio, everything okay?” I asked.
“Yeah,” came my nephew’s soft voice.
Not really your nephew, the voice in my head reminded me. It did that every time I used that word to describe Gio. I had no fucking clue why. Just another part of my fucked-up psyche that didn’t make any goddamn sense.
When Gio didn’t say anything, I gave him a little nudge, something I’d had to do a lot around the young man ever since he’d been rescued from the fucker who’d hurt him.
“What’s up, buddy?”
I could picture Gio staring at the floor, much like he had a habit of doing whenever he was speaking to someone in person. No doubt it was something the asshole who’d brainwashed Gio into thinking he was someone else and that they were in a loving, consensual relationship, had insisted upon… that show of submission.
God, I wished the fucker were still alive. I wanted to end his life slowly.
Painfully.
“King?”
“Yeah, I’m here,” I said, realizing I’d gotten momentarily lost in my head as I’d dreamed of revenge.
“Uncle Con said you’re not coming tonight?” Gio asked, his voice carrying a hint of disappointment. “It’s our last night here.”
“I’m coming,” I automatically said. They weren’t the words I’d wanted to say. I’d wanted to tell the young man that I couldn’t make it and that I’d see him soon but that circuit between my brain and my mouth never really worked right when it came to Gio. The fact was that I’d do anything for the teenager.
My eyes shifted back to the fucker watching the kids shooting hoops.
“I’m just going to be a little late,” I said.
“Okay.”
Gio’s silence spoke volumes. “King?” he finally asked.
He never called me Uncle King. He had when he’d been a child… before he’d been taken from us. But ever since he’d been returned to our family, he hadn’t referred to me as his uncle. I’d never asked him why because for some unknown reason that I didn’t want to give too much thought to, I preferred it that way.