Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 88673 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 443(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88673 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 443(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
The brazen display of these weapons is almost enough to get past the maître d’s better senses and make him chase after us, but the whole thing happens too fast and by the time he makes up his mind on how to handle the situation, we’re deep into the restaurant, twelve more Edge men are coming up behind us, and each of them has a dog at their knee.
Charlie Beaufort hasn’t seen us yet. He’s sitting in a big booth in the middle of the room and looks to be having a serious conversation with a senator’s staffer, so Collin is already slipping into the booth next to Charlie before he even takes notice that the whole restaurant has gone silent.
When a team of ‘private security’ dressed up in black tactical and carrying GhostMachine rifles enters a restaurant and starts surrounding people like a brick wall, it tends to garner one’s attention.
Unless you’re pompous Charlie Beaufort, that is.
Amon points to the staffer. “Get out.” Then he hooks his thumb over his shoulder.
The staffer sitting opposite of Charlie—young guy, early twenties, I’d guess—is properly intimidated and scoots out of the booth without saying a single word.
Amon takes his place, sets his rifle on the table in front of him, and I slide in next to him, but face the open side of the booth so I can keep an eye on things while Collin has his chat.
He still doesn’t trust me, but Charlie Beaufort seeing the three of us together is something Collin was pretty set on, since Charlie was the one who recruited me and told him I was dead.
“Hey, Charlie,” Collin says. He even says it nicely. “How’s your day goin’?”
I peek over my shoulder to catch Charlie’s reaction and find him looking around, like he’s got bodyguards to prevent unpleasant situations such as this, and he’s expecting them to appear and take over.
He does have bodyguards, but we took them out first. They’re tied up in Charlie’s limo in a parking garage down the block.
Charlie, realizing that no one is coming to save him, forces a smile. “This is an unexpected visit, Collin.” He’s sincere when he says this because he still hasn’t seen me. Because this man is so rich, and so insulated, and so powerful—I am no one right now. Just one of Collin’s men.
It blows my mind that he lives and works in a city as dangerous as Washington D.C. and doesn’t even bother to understand his surroundings. He reeks of privilege.
“Is it though?” Collin asks. “Unexpected?” Then Collin nods his head towards me. “Remember Raleigh, Charlie?”
Charlie mumbles, “Fuck,” under his breath as he meets my side-eye gaze. Then he looks at Collin. “I can explain.” He chuckles these words out. And they are so calm, and so easy, and filled with so much certainty, it kinda makes me sick. He’s still not afraid.
“Wow,” I say. “You are a lot stupider than you look.”
Charlie’s face goes red and he’s about to have one of those blowhard, blustering reactions he’s known for, but suddenly the tip of Amon’s rifle is pressing up against Charlie’s lips. Amon says, “Shut up, Charlie,” before Charlie even has a chance to spit out excuses.
“Listen,” Collin says, “we’re all busy men, so I’m gonna get to the point. Well, points. I’m gonna make a few right now while I have your full attention. One, I do not owe you ten hours of work for helping me save Lowyn from Ike Monroe last spring. Two, you burned a bridge with me, so we’re through. I’m keeping all the money you paid us for this current job, but all the active Edge men were pulled out this morning.”
Charlie’s eyes go wide—perhaps thinking of the consequences of this pulling out. I don’t know what this job is, so I can’t be sure what he’s thinking, but I’m gonna go out on a ledge here and say that Charlie might be in the beginning stages of a panic attack over this. He even starts his infamous blustering.
But Amon’s rifle pokes right into Charlie’s pie hole and makes him choke those words back.
“Three,” Collin continues, almost seamlessly, “Trinity County wants it to be known that we own all airspace above our county, as well as the ground below it. Blackberry Hill now belongs to us. If I see one drone, Charlie?” Collin stares at him with those viper eyes of his. “One. Drone? It’s on. If I find one stranger in my new underground city, they are dead and so are you.” Charlie is about to object to this, since it’s hardly something he can control, now is it? But Amon shakes his head at him, and no actual words come out. Only a squeak or two. “Are we clear here, Charlie? No debts. No drones. No strangers.” Charlie just stares at him, trying to process what is happening. “I’m gonna need a verbal answer at this point.”