Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 108242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 541(@200wpm)___ 433(@250wpm)___ 361(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 541(@200wpm)___ 433(@250wpm)___ 361(@300wpm)
“That’s relative, Doctor Cade,” Grim says dryly. “He’s a genius, though, yeah. In the literal sense, not colloquially. The little I’ve been able to dig up on him all predates his mother’s long bout with cancer. After she died, the trail dries up for the brothers, too.”
“And any luck finding his hopefully decomposing body yet?”
“No, but at least now we know who he is. We have a face and a name, which we probably won’t need because he’s probably dead and the body has been eaten by some wild animal or devoured by a shark.”
“Sharks in a river? Not likely.”
“You know what I mean. We’ve had no activity since. Not even a ping.”
“Considering he managed to not ping for years, that doesn’t ease my mind. If he survived…”
The tortured voice screaming his brother’s name haunts me for a moment. I’ve thought more about that than I have about the man I shot. It was the sound of genuine human pain. I hope I’ll never be so callous that it doesn’t affect me, even coming from the man I hate.
“We’ll keep our feelers out there,” Grim says. “I’m not giving up, just telling you there’s nothing yet and we’re probably in the clear.”
“‘Probably’ is not damn good enough with Lennix traipsing all over the fucking country in crowds and at rallies and vulnerable.”
“She wouldn’t be vulnerable if you’d let me put my guys back on her, King.”
“She doesn’t want that.” I clench a hand in my pocket. Each day I’m away from her, it takes everything in me not to order a stealth security detail she’d never even detect.
“Fuck what she wants. Since when did you hand your balls over to a girl?”
“You’ve obviously never had your balls well handled.” My roguish laugh echoes in the empty, palatial suite. “Lennix takes very good care of them for me.”
“Spare me the details.” Rare humor enters his gruff voice. “How the mighty have fallen. You go almost forty years without tying yourself down, and this little woman wraps you around her finger in a matter of months.”
“Months? I met her when I was twenty-four years old, Grim. You know she started winding me around more than her finger years ago.”
“God, yes. You were so whipped even in Antarctica. Staring at her photo on your phone all the time.”
I don’t bother telling him I’ve reinstated that photo of us in the tulip field as my phone’s screensaver. Lennix would have a conniption if she knew, afraid someone would see us together. I’ve yielded on enough. The hell if I won’t at least have a photo when she’s a whole continent away.
“I don’t mind being whipped as long as she’s the one holding the belt.”
“Be right back. I need to go mourn your manhood.”
“Ironically, she makes me a better man. She’s the most important thing in my life, and I got a lot of important shit in my life, brother.”
“I know. We’ll keep her safe, even though she’s being a brat about it.”
“Watch it. No one calls Nix a brat but me.”
“When was the last time you told me what the hell to do?”
He’s right. I’m invested in his security firm, but I’ve never been Grim’s boss. Everything he does for me is out of friendship, years of it.
“Also, why couldn’t you fall for some nice girl who would be quiet when you gave her jewels, suck your dick before breakfast, and follow you all over the world instead of trying to elect the next president?”
“One out of three ain’t bad.”
It takes him a second to catch it, and his guffaw draws an answering chuckle from me.
“Lucky son of a bitch,” Grim mumbles.
“Exactly, and as soon as I get back to the States I plan to take full advantage of my good fortune. Being away from her is hard as a motherfucker.”
“Well, we know precisely where she is at all times. At least you didn’t punk out on the tracker.”
“I love her,” I tell Grim softly, seriously. “I don’t own her. You don’t hold back someone like Lennix because the beauty is in how she flies. I want to see her soar. I just want to make sure she always lands safely. You know?”
Grim is silent on the other end for a moment. “I’ll keep working on Keene. Dude’s dead as a doorknob, but if by some miracle he shows his pretty face, we’ll see it.”
Pretty face? The image of wild blond curls rioting behind the Abe mask comes back to me.
“You prepared a file on him, right?” I ask, biting the inside of my jaw.
“Yeah, of course.”
“Send me everything.”
CHAPTER 15
LENNIX
It feels good to be out on the trail again. When Owen announced his candidacy, the response was exactly what I expected. Pandemonium. He’s the best candidate I’ve ever managed and the most exciting one the American public has seen in a long time.