Total pages in book: 212
Estimated words: 207966 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1040(@200wpm)___ 832(@250wpm)___ 693(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 207966 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1040(@200wpm)___ 832(@250wpm)___ 693(@300wpm)
Then again, I feel too much on a deep level and those feelings are so full inside me that sometimes I think that if I could just open my mouth and scream really loud and for a really long time, they’d finally have somewhere to go.
But running out of yet another squat with the tweaker threatening to kill us, Kailey pouring gasoline on that fire by laughing over her shoulder and calling him names, I worry that one of these days, she’s going to get the both of us killed.
***
Now
“Kai, you have to get out of there,” I hissed. “This doesn’t sound good at all. Shit’s about to go south. I know it. They’re using you again, and-”
She cut me off, “Ain’t nothing I can do about any of it but wait it out. And he does care about me, Gia. You should see how sweet he can be when it’s just us. He’s under a lotta pressure.”
If caring meant knocking her around, using her, basically pimping her out, having her make videos to ruin his enemies and then sharing those far and wide …
She kept talking. “He’ll see to me. Just gotta stick close and help. You should come. Hunker down ‘til it’s over. It’s gonna get bad, sis. They’re gonna take out every last Dom. They’re gonna…”
Her voice dropped so low I just barely heard her.
“Start with their women. Take ‘em out one at a time, watching the Doms fall apart as they lose everything, and then they’ll go for the throat. When it’s all over, things will be good. Mantis’ll – shit. Hold on.”
“Kailey…” I breathed, feeling my insides shrivel.
She was again playing with fire. And she knew deep down that the Dominion Brotherhood weren’t the bad guys. The guys she was hitching her wagon to now were the bad guys. The worst guys.
Kailey plays both sides in every war, figuring it’s a safe way to make sure she’ll always come out on the winning side. But she never plays it smart. And she played it really stupidly when she went against the Dominion Brotherhood. She didn’t learn from that though, from all the things that happened as a result of her getting played. And again, she was playing with more fire, not learning from the last time the Wyld Jackals burnt her.
But because of what she did, the Dominion Brotherhood will have nothing to do with her, so now she considers them her enemy, too.
And yeah, once again she got me painted with that same brush. I was no longer welcome there because of her and her games.
“Come by Charlie’s, Gia. Come to the back door. Sarge always asks about you. Drop his name and they’ll let you into the back room. He’ll look after you. Say his name, not Mantis, okay? You’re safer associated with us than being seen as one of theirs and if you ask for Sarge, he’ll protect you.”
“I’m not one of theirs, though. You know the brotherhood doesn’t claim hang-around girls.” I learned that lesson the hard way. More than once.
“Well, you better come here and make it known whose side you’re on because you could be used to make a point otherwise.”
There was no way I was going there. No way in the world. I knew the way that club operated. No point mentioning that if Kailey had oh so much sway over their president, she should be able to talk him into not using her stepsister to make a violent point to hurt the Doms. But I knew better than to burst Kailey’s bubble. She’d go silent and freeze me out for at least a couple weeks as a punishment, leaving me to wonder if she was okay or not. It’d happened before. She gives a shit about me, I know she does, but she wants me asking for Sarge instead of Mantis because she’s worried Mantis will turn his attention to me and make me his favorite. Kailey hates it when I get male attention, though she has definitely used it to her advantage more than she’d ever admit.
“They’re goin’ after a daughter – of one of the big cheeses over there, some chick who’s doin’ a nanny gig in New York. I eavesdropped on their church. Said she’s unprotected. They’ve got connections up there and I heard ‘em debating between puttin’ out a hit and bringing her in to make an example. They know the park she takes those kids she babysits to almost every day. They’ll get her easily.”
Jojo Valentine told me she found a childcare job in New York last time we talked. Oh no.
“Oh God,” I gasped, my stomach roiling.
“They were goin on…” she went on, “about some chick with a huge rack who’s seein’ the VP; she manages some coffee house and doesn’t have eyes on her at the end of the night. They’re gonna catch her as she makes the night deposit. Grab her, grab the cash. And, some other girl who lives over a flower shop in Aberdeen. One of the members said the sweet butts should all be taken out, too. Mantis put the axe down on that for now, but it could change. That’s why I’m callin’. You need to make sure you’re not associated with them. Come here, sis. Come to Charlie’s and that’s your best bet. Sidle up to Sarge.”