Total pages in book: 26
Estimated words: 24027 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 120(@200wpm)___ 96(@250wpm)___ 80(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 24027 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 120(@200wpm)___ 96(@250wpm)___ 80(@300wpm)
“Shawn, what if…what if he doesn’t—?”
“Don’t even go there,” Shawn interrupts. “You know he’s going to wake up.”
I gulp green tea and nod. “Right, I do.” But as I look down at Callum, his eyes closed, his face cemented in an uncharacteristically soft, almost weak expression, a wave of uncertainty hits me. “But I mean…what if?”
Shawn quickly places a hand on my back. “Then you’ll hold a meeting with all the men back at the house and execute me in front of them,” he says. “And take over as the fucking queen bitch crime lord of New York!”
I almost spray chicken salad all over the room as I burst out laughing and quickly cover my mouth with a napkin.
“Okay, Shawn.” I laugh, nodding. “I needed that. Thank you.”
“I don’t want to hear any more of that negativity, okay?” he asks. “Or no more sandwiches for you. Now I’d love to stay and chat, but I’ve got to go and strong-arm those boosters who were trying to stiff us on the commission.”
“Remember,” I say as he goes to the door. “You remind them they can up the commission on us, but they’ll lose our police protection, which means they’ll be spending a lot more bailing out their guys, spending more on legal fees, court cases and all that. In the long run, they’ll be saving money just paying us.”
Shawn grins and nods. “See, this is why I like you in charge, Evie. You’re a natural.”
“See you soon, Shawn.”
Shawn grins and leaves me with a thumbs-up to finish my sandwich at Callum’s side. It hurts me to look at him, lying there hooked up to all those machines while I do my best to run the empire he built.
“You should be here with me,” I whisper, taking his hand. “Telling me what to do, telling your men what to do. This isn’t my job.”
I sigh, feeling the fatigue beginning to take me over, and lean my head down on the bed beside him and close my eyes. Maybe Shawn is right; maybe I do need to get some sleep.
“But you’re doing such a damn good job at it…”
My heart nearly leaps out of my chest at the sound of his voice.
I sit up and look down at the bed just as Callum slowly opens his eye lids and I see them—those beautiful, deadly, icy blue eyes.
“You’re awake!” I blurt out, feeling the tears begin to fall down my cheeks. “My love!”
“Oh, come on now.” He smiles. “You didn’t think one bullet would be enough to kill me, did you?”
Without thinking, I throw myself onto him and hug him, causing him to groan. But still, he manages to wrap an arm around me, which feels better than anything I’ve ever felt in my life.
“God, I’ve missed you,” I cry into his chest. “And since I didn’t get a chance to finish what I was saying before, baby, I want to say now that I would love to be your partner.”
Epilogue
Callum
Four Years Later…
* * *
My wife is one sexy, badass, mob-wife bitch.
Sometimes, on those rare days when she wakes up before me, I like to just stand there for thirty seconds or so when I come downstairs, and just look at her from behind, gaze at the elegant lines of her back that draw my eyes down to her perfectly slim waist where I love to put my hands, down to her plump ass that only I get to see bare, and then down to those legs that could have given her a career in modeling if she’d wanted one.
But of course fate had other plans for Evie. And now, as I stand on the balcony of our private bedroom in our second home, the one I bought when we wanted to get away from the grind of our life in New York, I feel like the luckiest man alive. And it’s all because of her.
She’s wearing the black lace dress I bought her for tonight, the one with the delicate straps that hangs so perfectly off her equally delicate frame. I had it custom made for her by our in-house tailor, made specifically to her measurements. The custom pair of blood-red heels complete the look, making her look every bit a delicate angel and a fearsome force to be reckoned with, which she is.
I thought I’d reached the greatest heights I could reach with my empire, but with Evie by my side as my most trusted partner, my power has expanded tenfold. Her insight and planning combined with my experience and resources has made us an unstoppable force. Now her name rings out with as much fear and respect as mine, and that’s something a woman has never accomplished in my world.
But she’s not just my partner; she’s my wife and the mother of my child.