Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 76029 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76029 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
"Okay, Belle," Huck said, moving in beside me. "I'm gonna need to know what happened. Where are my guards? How did he get in? How did you know he was here?"
"I turned off the security system," Belle admitted, looking up at him, unflinching even as Huck let out a savage curse at that.
"I have fucking children on this property, Belle. So does Che. Betty is here. What the fuck were you thinking?"
"I was thinking that I would rather let him in and take him out now, than have all of us live in fear for weeks or months or the rest of our lives if we never found him any other way."
I mean, to an extent, I got her logic.
But I understood Huck's anger as well.
"How did you know he was here?"
"I saw him. I was in the back room, watching the cameras, and I saw him."
So that was where she kept disappearing to. The room to watch the camera feed.
"I guess his plan was to come in here and take us all out," she added, tone calm, even.
"And my men?"
"I told them I saw something on the cameras in the back," she told them.
"While you let Anton in through the front," Huck concluded.
"Yes."
"How you get him unarmed?" Alaric asked.
"Slammed the door on his wrist," Belle explained, shrugging. "He dropped the gun. I got him on his knees. The rest..." she said, trailing off, waving a hand outward.
"Christ," Huck muttered, reaching up to run a hand through his hair. "Babe, I say this with love and respect, but I think you need therapy," he declared.
"Why? You walked into that house to get Betty and killed men. You walked into the bakery and killed men. I'm sure it wasn't the first time either."
"She's got a point, boss man," Eddie said, nodding.
"Alright, yeah, but this is what we do. It's not what you do," Huck insisted.
"I think I am reevaluating what I want to do," Belle declared, making my stomach drop.
Again, yes, selfishly.
The plan had always been for us to go into business together, to build something for ourselves, to spend most of our time together.
Learning that was not likely to happen was upsetting.
Even if, at the end of the day, I knew that the nail salon thing was more my dream and my passion. Belle had gone to school for nails simply because it was something I was familiar with, and I knew she could make some money with. It hadn't been what she truly wanted to do with her life.
So if she found something else she wanted to do, who the hell was I to stand in her way?
"What do you want to do? Killing people isn't exactly a profession," Huck declared.
"I want to get some training, and I want to teach self-defense to women," Belle said, chin lifting.
Clearly, it was something she'd given a lot of thought to judging by the determination and fire in her eyes. And, honestly, it sounded like a great path for her. I could see it.
"Oh, well, kind of dig that," Remy declared, shrugging.
"There are so many women out there with abusive exes or stalkers, and the cops can't or won't help them. I want to teach them how to help themselves. So that is what I am going to do now that I am free to," she said, giving him a firm nod as she got to her feet, moving through the crowd of men, and going back upstairs.
"Well," I started on an exhale, "that's that, I guess," I said.
"Seeley, Donovan, Alaric, you guys are on the body," Huck declared, and each of the men had mirrored looks of resigned distaste. Remy, Che... the carpet and wall?" Huck asked, sighing.
"Yep," Remy said.
"On it," Che agreed.
"I guess I will deal with whatever vehicle he drove out here. It's been a while since I chopped a car," Huck said, smirking. "Should be fun."
"Once everyone is out, I will get the security system back up," McCoy offered.
"Good. Good. Everyone has a job. Someone give the hangabouts a hard time for letting this fucker inside," Huck said on his way toward the door.
With that, everyone hopped to work in a flurry of capable action. While I stood there feeling a little shell shocked from it all.
"Babe," McCoy said, reaching out to snag my chin, pulling it up so I faced him. "You okay?"
"I saw my sister kill a man tonight," I said, the words so absurd that I couldn't seem to keep in the weird, choked giggle that rose up and bubbled out.
"You did," McCoy agreed, ignoring my completely inappropriate laugh. "And that's gotta feel fucked up," he said.
"I, ah, it was kind of dark, so I didn't see as much of it actually happening. But after..."
"Yeah, it wasn't pretty," McCoy agreed.
"I feel weirdly detached from it all."