Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 74428 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74428 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
"The coffee is fresh-ish," Astrid offered, grabbing the floral mug to go cap it off. "I saw you getting your stalker on outside waiting for Cam to leave. Figure you might be cold."
"You knew I was watching all morning and you let me up?" I asked as she poured me coffee in a goddamn Ursula mug.
"Yep," she agreed, moving over to hop herself up on the counter in the kitchen, watching me.
"Why?"
"I don't know. Call it a hunch."
"A hunch about what?" I asked as she pulled up her mug, taking a long sip. If I wasn't mistaken, delaying.
And just a few seconds later, I heard some slamming around, bottles hitting the floor in the bathroom, some grumbling, and then a door opening, bare feet slapping on the hard floor, bringing Liv out in a flimsy white and cream kimono, cut high on the thigh, opened in a long V down the chest, her long hair wrapped up in a white towel. Her cheeks were tinted pink from the hot water.
The low, sweet humming that had been vibrating through her stopped as she turned out of the hallway, gaze moving around the room, finding me sitting at the table like I belonged there.
"Astrid... what the fuck?" she asked in the same exasperated, amused, confused voice she'd used on her the day before.
"He brought a reed diffuser. It smells like sipping piña coladas on a beach while hot island men feed you pineapples and tell you how beautiful you are."
"Yeah, 'cause that is a scent," Liv snorted. "You gave him coffee?" she sighed, shaking her head.
In doing so, the side of her face caught the light, showing off a scar I had missed when her hair had been down, curving from the side of her ear and down her jaw - light pink and shiny. Thick though. Deliberate, I would bet. Put there by a knife and an angry hand.
Marks on women's skin.
Didn't matter that I didn't know her, that she had made my life harder, it still made anger bubble up inside at seeing it there. Right on her face too. A constant reminder of what someone had done to her.
Sure, danger came with the territory. You didn't get into gun running and expect it to be smooth sailing.
But I couldn't help but wonder if she saw it and felt shame, anger, or determination to never let it happen again. Maybe a combination of all three.
"He was standing out in the cold, Liv. He needed to warm up."
"Or die of frostbite," Liv shot back, surprising me by not going for a gun, simply walking over to the kitchen as well, pouring herself what was left of the pot of coffee, putting in some caramel-flavored creamer.
"Oh, come now. Don't be so grumpy. It's not his fault we stole from him," Astrid claimed, hopping off the counter, moving over toward me. "He took a mean dog bite for us too. Did it need stitches?" she asked, almost sounding eager.
Willing to placate her since she seemed to be on my team, I slowly stood, shrugging out of my jacket, then peeling off the gauze, showing off the angry, red, jagged mark still riddled with metal stitches.
"Oh, that is going to be a yummy scar," she decided, reaching down to trace down my forearm.
"Don't you think your time would be better spent tracking down some replacement guns than staking out our loft?"
"No, see. This was your fuck up, mami. And it's up to you to fix it."
"Fix it," she repeated.
"Find me replacement guns before my boss gets pissed," I clarified.
"Oh, fun. An adventure," Astrid decided, walking over toward the couch, throwing herself down.
"Adventure? Really, Astrid? Do you remember trying to track it down in the first place? See, that was why I had to take from you guys. I was going to lose a client if I didn't get the Double Trigger. You had the only one available anywhere."
"Well, time to dig a little deeper. You have... three weeks."
"It's not..."
The door opened, bringing in Camden again, another growl escaping him at finding me there.
"Don't look at me," Liv said, waving a hand down at her towel and kimono.
His gaze went to Astrid, brow quirked up. "What? Don't look at me like that. He is being very reasonable, in my opinion."
"He wants us to track down replacement guns," Liv explained to the oddly silent Camden.
"It's bad for business to get on the bad side of an organization like The Henchmen," Astrid added. "I am just trying to be a voice of reason here. We were working on a deadline and were desperate. Now they are doing the same. And I don't know if we want a desperate MC on our case. I think it is smarter to cooperate."
Liv and Camden shared a look, one that said maybe they were seeing Astrid's side, that for all her craziness, she was actually thinking things through.