Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 75062 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75062 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
With that, I had to drop in on both my brothers, finding August at his place, but Nino at Matteo and Josie’s place, in the driveway… detailing her car. Because he took that “If you need anything, call me” thing seriously when he said them to Josie after she’d saved my life.
He took her car in for its twice-yearly maintenance. He drove her to the dentist when she was going to get sweet air for a procedure.
If he got wind of it, he was helping her handle it.
“Alright. Yeah. I will hit the road as soon as I finish here,” he said, waving out to the mats he had spread on the driveway next to his pressure washer.
“Didn’t you detail her car in the fall?”
“Snow means there is salt all over inside. Just figured I’d give it a refresher,” Nino said in that deep, gravelly voice of his.
“Can’t help but wonder what is going to happen when you end up feeling like you owe another woman for doing one of us a solid.”
“Well, if you assholes don’t go and get yourselves shot again, I won’t have to worry about it,” he said, hooking up the hose to the power washer.
“Text me when you’re in the area,” I said.
“Will do,” he agreed, then turned on the washer, making any more conversation impossible.
Not that I had anymore.
I was anxious to get on the road, to go get a closer look at the organization.
If I were being honest, I was more interested in getting another look at Cammie.
But that shit was too fucked up to admit even to myself.
So I went ahead and didn’t do that.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Cammie
I walked back up the driveway with a knot in my stomach, wondering if Colin was going to believe my lie, if he was going to see my tear-streaked cheeks and swollen eyelids, and think something else was up.
Luckily, I found both of my brothers and one of the usual guards standing out front waiting for me.
“Hey guys,” I said, offering them a small smile.
“Looks like you have another migraine,” Nicky, the elder of my younger brothers, said, frowning.
“Yeah,” I said, nodding. “And that quack just told me to take some vitamins,” I told them, waving the bag at them.
Nicky and Lucas were both similar in looks and builds. Both had the same sort of blond hair that I did and green eyes, though their’s were a slightly darker shade. They were both average height with average builds.
Nicky had been building his tattoo collection since he came of-age, but Lucas didn’t have any so far.
“Sucks,” Lucas said, shaking his head.
“Tell me about it,” I agreed. “And these vitamins, if they even work, can take weeks to start being effective,” I told them, giving myself future headache excuses to miss dinners.
“Assholes. Couldn’t just give you the meds? You’re the one paying for it,” Nicky said, even though we both knew that he was the one paying for it.
Colin would have paid. Because he liked making me have to ask. Because he knew how disgusted and desperate I’d have to be to do it.
That was why Nicky had stepped in when I’d mentioned it to him.
Granted, yes, Nicky’s money was still Colin’s money, but the slight separation made me feel better about it.
I did feel a little guilty about lying to Nicky about it, but I knew he had enough to spare. And that it might, hopefully, put an end to this whole nightmare our lives had become.
I needed some of the money to pay for gas, then I’d gone ahead and treated myself to some crappy fast food to make up for the fact that I wasn’t sure that I had really gotten through to Massimo Grassi.
I was a little paranoid that someone could smell the greasy fries, hamburger, and onion rings on me.
See, Colin’s control was pretty complete. Which meant that unless my brothers snuck me something, I ate exactly what he provided and nothing else.
I ate a lot of salad and plain chicken and steamed vegetables. And, hey, there was nothing wrong with healthy food. I would eat many of the same things relatively often even if I was given the choice.
That being said, Colin’s motives were to “keep me the same weight I was in high school” because “so many women let themselves go after that.”
Which, yeah, was one of the scummiest things I’d ever heard him say which was saying something because most of what he said was scummy.
“Have you made any progress in getting Colin to let you take that job?” Nicky asked as he followed me through the garage and up the stairs that led to the apartment I’d been calling home for years.
I’d been trying to get him to let me work for years. To which he always reminded me that he “provided me with everything I need, so there is no reason to work.”