Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 79382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
And with that, the smooth bastard slipped his fingers between mine and gave me a squeeze and I just... couldn't seem to make myself pull away.
"Why won't you give up?" I managed to force myself to ask.
"Come on," he said, ducking his head to the side a little. "You and I both know that when this happens, not if, when, it is going to be fucking epic."
He wasn't wrong.
That was the sad part to me. I was denying myself something I knew would be amazing. I mean, in general, I had pretty much always had good sex. What was the point of doing it if you weren't going to do it with a partner that knew what they were doing? But I had a feeling that, like he told me when we first met, that two people like us, people who were intuitive and could read a lot into even the smallest of things, we would be explosive in bed.
I was starting to wonder if maybe I owed it to myself to experience that before I moved on.
But, at the same time, there was this small, almost inaudible voice telling me that once wouldn't be enough.
"You know I'm right, sweetheart."
"Don't..." I started, only to be interrupted by the opening of the doors in the front. Reign and Mitch hauled themselves in and slammed the door.
"Fucking Lloyd," Reign exhaled, shaking his head. "Like talking to a goddamn wall."
"Once they get booked, Alex can find their names and once we have their names, we can try to run their financials," I went on, trying to pull my hand from Renny's discreetly so the guys in the front wouldn't see. But he just held on tighter, grinning like an idiot as I kept trying to gently struggle. "Then from there," I went on, giving Renny a death-glare he only chuckled at, "we can see if they have used credit cards at hotels or restaurants around here and maybe track down some associates. Alright, enough," I snapped, reaching across my body and digging my thumb into a pressure point in the crook of Renny's elbow, making him hiss and jerk away, releasing my hand.
"Fucking ow," he said, shaking his head at me, but his damn lips were still tipped up.
I could see Reign's eyes in the rearview, amused, and I knew he was probably smirking too. Like he knew what had just happened. Maybe he did.
"But what I'm saying is, we have a little more than we did. This might not be what everyone was hoping for, but it's not a setback either."
"Alright," Reign said, putting the car into reverse. "Well, you and Renny need to have a talk with the Lazarus guy anyway. So while we wait on booking and Alex, we can at least get something accomplished."
"The cops will be snooping around for another half an hour at least," Mitch piped in. "And then we need to get some people inside to check everything over too; make sure they didn't miss anything; sweep for bugs. The usual."
"Lo is gonna be pissed," Renny added, drawing my attention, head cocked to the side. "She and Janie are part owners of the gym. Actually, they have majority share over Cash. This was the first attack that didn't solely target Henchmen, but their allies as well. And that shit wasn't exactly kept under wraps; they couldn't have been blind to it. They just didn't give a fuck. That won't sit right with Lo and Hailstorm. They just fucked up."
He wasn't wrong.
Hailstorm was Lo's pride and joy. It was what she built out of the shambles of her old life. It was what was a constant for her, always there for her, always a safe haven for herself and all her little lost puppies. Me, in a way, included.
Threats in the beginning weren't rare. She was a newbie in the game; other more established organizations wanted to take her out before she got too big. She dealt with those threats, along with her small but highly trained team of ex-military and niche criminals, swiftly and mercilessly. And once she got the name on the street of a 'plain old crazy mother fucker', she branched out, expanded, made an empire that was so big that very few could or would be willing to fuck with. Sure, we lost men and women on missions. But no one came after us. Not anymore.
Really, it was a suicide mission.
Everyone knew that.
So the Abruzzos must have known that. They were either so large that they thought they could best all of The Henchmen and Hailstorm at the same time, or they maybe thought Lo was losing her edge, softening.
Which, well, yeah that wouldn't sit right with her.
No one would accuse Lo of being soft. While there was absolutely, at her core, a softness, a nurturing spirit- that was for her people at Hailstorm and her friends. When it came to enemies, she was still that younger, hungry, angry person with a point to prove, with a mission to never be fucked with again.