Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 85490 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85490 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
And made ten times worse when Ronan shows up at my doorstep. “You’ve been fucking quiet,” he says, brushing past me and into my apartment. I sigh, close the door, and remind myself that I need to fucking move now that the whole city apparently knows where I live.
“I’ve been busy.” I find Ronan in my kitchen going through my cabinets.
“Don’t you have any goddamn coffee in this place?”
I brush him aside and start making us espresso. “I didn’t know you could get out of bed before ten in the morning.”
“Yeah, well, it’s not exactly my favorite thing in the world now.” Ronan leans against the counter and watches me work. “You’ve been a slimy little eel lately. Been hard to pin you down.”
“Like I said, I’ve been busy.”
“Sure, sure, took a job for those weirdo biker guys, I heard about that. But from my perspective, you’ve been on my ass about our little alliance deal for the last few months, then suddenly you disappear. What’s the deal?”
“No deal.” I hand over his drink and stand across from him. Ronan and I are friends, but not the kind of buddies that drop by unannounced. This visit is setting off all manner of alarm bells.
He takes a sip of the coffee and sighs. “That’s pretty good.”
“Better be. That machine cost two grand.”
“Two grand? For fucking coffee?” He makes a face then shrugs. “Good though.”
“Skip to the part where you tell me why you’re here.”
He walks off into my living room. It annoys the hell out of me, and I drift after him. Nerves jangle in my guts. I’m worried he knows about Laura somehow, but that’s impossible. If anything, he’d know that a Bianco daughter was spotted with some weirdo in a fetish mask and hate them even more than he did before.
“Adam’s been on my ass the last few days,” he says at last, looking out my window. It’s a good view: the lake stretches out into the distance, sunlight glittering off it like the diamonds in Laura’s collar. He’s only a few feet away from her sculpture.
“Yeah? What’s his deal?”
“He’s ready, Marco. No more bullshit. He wants in.”
That gets my attention. I figured Adam would only agree to play along after I got Julien fully on board, but this is massive. If Adam’s in, then Julien will definitely be in, and that’ll be enough to convince Dusan that this is a good idea.
But I’m wary. Good news like this doesn’t just happen. “What changed?” I ask.
“The guy that died in that shooting? Apparently, his cousin’s daughter was in love with him, and now the girl’s all heartbroken and inconsolable. Adam’s nothing if not a family man.” Ronan rolls his eyes and takes another sip. “Shit, this is really fantastic. I need to come over more often.”
“No, you really don’t.” I pace across the living room. “Is he serious about this?”
“Said so himself to me just last night.”
“Why hasn’t he gotten in touch yet then?”
“Fuck if I know.” Ronan gives me a look. “You seem squirrelly. Maybe that’s why.”
I stop pacing. God damn it, he’s right. I’ve been dumping all my free time into my relationship with Laura, and I’ve been neglecting my duties. Valentina says she’s been trying to keep everyone in the loop, but that’ll only go so far.
“I’ll talk to him then and work it out.”
“Nah, brother, we’ve got to have a big old meeting again. Get all the lads together and have them hash it out, yeah? Once Adam’s on board, you know the others will be too, they just need a little convincing.”
I grind my jaw. This is moving fast and I don’t feel like I’m in control of the situation. My relationship with Laura is new, and if this alliance comes together and we start an actual war, I might fuck everything up with her.
Besides, it’s too fast. We need to be slow and methodical about this. At least, that’s how I’m justifying it to myself.
“Not yet,” I say, and I can tell Ronan doesn’t like it. “Give me some time to lay the groundwork with Julien. I want to make sure this comes together.”
“Bro, listen to me. All this talk? All this fucking around? It’ll only piss everyone off. You know how these lads are. They want action, not chatter.”
“Give me a few days, that’s all I’m asking. I’ll talk to Adam and get shit settled. This is happening, Ronan. It’s a good thing.”
He cocks his head to the side and doesn’t seem convinced, but he finishes his coffee and lets me corral him back to the front door. As he’s leaving, we run straight into Valentina, because of course we do, everyone loves appearing at my place these days whenever they damn well please.
“Lovely seeing you, darling,” Ronan says to her.
“I know,” Valentina replies, which Ronan seems to love. He walks off, before Valentina turns her attention to me. “What was that about?” she asks, eyes narrowed. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Ronan at your place before.”