Total pages in book: 39
Estimated words: 36632 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 183(@200wpm)___ 147(@250wpm)___ 122(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36632 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 183(@200wpm)___ 147(@250wpm)___ 122(@300wpm)
“Because the first time I saw her after she came home from her first semester of college, I knew I’d never look at another woman the way I looked at Sonya. I couldn’t have her, and she’d never want me. Seeing her living her life and playing around with some hapless boy unable to resist her would have… not ended well. For the boy.”
“So, you’re telling me you stayed away from her because you wanted her to be yours. Am I understanding you correctly?”
“Yes.”
“Why did you agree to bring her to the Oasis when Thorn asked you to help her channel her energies and find her future?”
“What was I supposed to say, Liam?” I snapped angrily. “‘Sorry, Thorn. I can’t help your daughter out because I’d rather be fuckin’ her’? I can imagine how fuckin’ well that’d go over.”
To my surprise, El Diablo laughed. Not a sinister laugh that said I was getting ready to die, but one of genuine humor. “Yes. I can see where that would have been a problem. So, what about you and Sonya?”
“She’s going to be mine.”
“Unless Thorn kills you first.”
“There’s that.”
El Diablo studied me for a long time, then sighed. “Only you could ever get so caught up in something you forgot you were married.” There were equal parts irritation and amusement in his expression. “But I suppose it never had an occasion to come up.”
“It did not. After she didn’t show to sign the papers and basically said don’t call me, I’ll call you, I didn’t try to contact her again. She knew how to find me, as evidenced by her showing up here for her bad timing award, and I had more important things to worry about.”
“Yes. As I recall you were hunting a particularly nasty drug lord.”
“Which is yet another reason I suppressed it all. I have no family, Liam. Only you and Black Reign. If the tie between Gloria and me had gotten out back then, she’d have been as good as dead.”
“And Sonya?”
I stood abruptly, glaring down at the man I considered a brother. “I’ll kill anyone who comes near her.”
El Diablo raised an eyebrow. “Don’t growl at me. I’d never hurt that girl.”
That’s when I realized I had bared my teeth and tensed to spring. At El Diablo. I cleared my throat and straightened. “Sorry.” I sat and gave him a sheepish grin. “I should say, I will protect her with my life and God help anyone who comes between me and her.”
“I’d expect nothing less. Now. Next question. What are you doing to do about little Miss Sunshine out there?”
“Who the fuck let in that skank ho in the car compensating for her personality?”
“Ah, my sweet Jezebel.” El Diablo held out a hand to his wife. She flounced to him and plopped down in his lap. “You sound displeased.” He frowned at her, but winked at me when she spoke.
“The bitch is flirting with anything with a dick. Which, I could care less about. What I do mind is how she keeps asking for El Diablo. President of this club.”
“Me?”
“Oh, yes. Apparently, she wants to be the woman of the president because everyone else is beneath her.”
El Diablo gave me a look. “I think I’m beginning to see why you forgot her so completely.”
I shrugged. “Apparently, it was a defense mechanism. As to my plan, Shotgun is going through everything he can find. Given Eden had about as good an encounter with Gloria as you did, Jezebel, she’ll help him. He’s doing the divorce as well as redirecting my payment deposits. Once that’s done, he’s looking into her life and the man she was in a relationship with until recently.”
“How long does Shotgun think that’s gonna take?” Jezebel obviously wasn’t liking where this was going. The woman had good instincts.
“Not sure. Several hours at minimum, but I’m sure he’ll want a little more time than that. She can be confined to a room in the club whores’ wing. Lock her in. Give her food and some clean clothes. Though from the looks of her, I’m sure she’d bitch about anything we gave her.”
Jezebel huffed out a laugh. “Do you honestly care?”
I grinned. “Not in the least.”
There was a chime and a buzz as both El Diablo and Jezebel got messages. Jezebel pulled hers out and read the message before handing it to her husband. Neither of them gave anything away with their expression. I checked my phone in case I’d missed the thing buzzing. If Shotgun had sent out a club message, I needed to check. Nothing.
“Everything OK?” I asked, looking from El Diablo to his woman and back.
“Yep.” Jezebel gave me a friendly smile that made me entirely too uneasy. “Just got a couple of things to take care of.” She stood, then leaned down to kiss her husband. “I’ll start working on this now and meet you later tonight. I’m sure she’ll need all this sooner rather than later.”