Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 76846 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76846 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
“My mom, my aunts, even some of my uncles. My family is big on food,” I explained. “My ma said it was a life skill, and boys need to learn that shit just as much as the girls do. So I learned young. Can I make you something?”
“I mean, if you’re offering, I’m not going to turn you down,” she said with an eager smile.
Knowing she was short on time, I got to work on simple omelets with cheese, some spinach, and bacon. I felt the almost overwhelming urge to make an entire fucking spread, to impress her, but I tamped that down, knowing it was only going to feed into the growing interest I clearly had in a woman who was only going to be a transient part of my life.
The moan she made as she had her first bite, though, had me wanting to say Fuck it to my convictions not to let things get physical.
“Good?” I asked, watching her cut off another bite and shove it in her mouth.
“I know you have a job and everything, but I think you missed your calling as a chef,” she told me.
“You like this, you’re gonna love an actual full meal,” I said, starting to eat my own food even if my appetite was for something else entirely. “If you give me a roundabout time you might be home, I can make dinner.”
“You don’t have—“ she started.
“I want to,” I cut her off.
“I’ve been trying not to stay too late anymore,” she admitted. “I leave when the interns and staff head out. Maybe… eight?” she said.
“I can do eight. You’ll take a ride share back and forth, right?” I asked, wishing I could offer to drive her. But the only thing worse than her being on her own was her being seen with me again, letting the Bratva think we had some sort of plant inside the senator’s world.
If we wanted a full-scale war, that would be a good way to go about getting it.
It might come to that regardless. But I was sure Renzo wanted us to pick off their new allies and cut down their numbers before we actually had to face off with the fucks.
The longer I could keep Elizabeth’s presence in my life a secret, the better.
“Yeah. Is that okay?” she asked, plowing through her omelet like she’d been starved for weeks.
“Yeah. I am just going to suggest that you have him drive you around a little bit first, just to make sure you’re not being followed here.”
“Oh,” she said, face falling. When the light hit her just right, I could still see the shadow of her bruise. But I was pretty sure that if someone didn’t know it was there, they wouldn’t be able to tell. “You think they’ll follow me?”
“I’m hoping not.”
“What if I do see someone following me?”
“Call me,” I told her.
“But…”
“Let’s not create worries that might never come to pass, okay? I’ll follow the enforcers today. They’re the ones who shot at you, and who likely broke into your place. If they aren’t anywhere near your work, we shouldn’t have anything to worry about.”
“Okay,” she agreed, nodding.
“I will text you if they are there, so you know not to come out, or to come out in a crowd, and then I will give you instructions from there.”
“You’re good at this,” she said, exhaling hard and rolling the tension out of her shoulders.
“Part of the job, I guess,” I told her. “I’m going to do everything I can to keep you safe,” I assured her. “Hopefully, you can get your boss to confide in you tonight, though. In which case, you can just quit going there and can just hang here where we know you’re safe.”
“Yeah,” she agreed, nodding, but looking a little sad.
“Hey,” I said, waiting until those blue eyes of hers lifted to look at me. “I’m not trying to rush you along. Even if you get the recording and give it to the police or the press, you are free to stay here as long as it takes for you to figure out your next move.”
“You don’t think the police are going to take down the Bratva, do you?” she asked.
“No,” I told her. “I’m not trying to be a pessimist here, it’s just the reality. Big organized criminal empires don’t fold overnight because of one scandal. The man your boss is trying to get off his charges was a high-ranking member of this family. They’re getting on just fine without him.
“Not even when the law got all high-and-mighty in the eighties, using RICO to bring down the mob, did the whole thing just crash. It went through growing pains for a while, sure, but it never went anywhere. The same can be said of the Bratva.”
“So I will never be safe in Brooklyn again,” she said, eyes sad.