Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 78696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
I walked to her, finding it increasingly hard to smile in the wake of what I’d just heard, but with the way Lenore was sitting on the couch, her shoulders shaking in laughter, I found my first smile.
Albeit reluctantly.
I fell into the seat beside her, causing her body to roll into mine.
She removed her hands from her face and smiled at me, causing my stomach to flip.
“Have a nice talk?” She asked.
I shook my head.
“We need to talk,” I muttered as she looked at me.
I just kept looking at her, unsure where to start, causing her impatience to win out.
“So talk,” she snapped.
“We have an informant who excels in the underground criminal network,” I hesitated. “He can get to places we can’t. We pay him for what he hears, and if it’s good enough, we do him favors.”
“So…what?” She asked softly.
“We owe him a favor,” I told her.
Her eyes widened. “What kind of information did he give you to get you to bring me here?”
“The kind of information that the man who was partially responsible for killing my son put two and two together to get twelve,” I said cryptically.
Peek snorted.
I flicked my gaze to Peek for a brief second before it settled back on Lenore and her worried eyes.
“So what does that mean?” she asked.
“The other day I made a mistake in going to my ex-wife’s house to get some information from her husband. He recently changed his mind and decided to back a bill that will dramatically impact the way law enforcement in this state is allowed to execute duties. He had originally been against this bill, and then he changed his mind, which happened to occur right after my son was murdered. I wanted to know why he changed his vote, and more importantly, who was behind this change,” I explained. “I assumed that being roughed up a bit and scaring the shit out of him would be enough to prevent him from doing anything stupid. But it didn’t, and I am now forced to deal with the mistaken assumptions I made.”
She blinked.
“Okay,” she replied, confusion clear in her voice. “So what did he do?”
“Three hours ago, Justin Hayes made a call that put plans into motion to have me killed,” I told her.
Her mouth dropped open.
“You’re fucking kidding,” she gasped.
I shook my head.
“No. Not even a little bit,” I growled, leaning back into the couch and placing both hands on my head, working my hands through my hair.
“So what…you’re going to go into hiding?” She asked.
I shook my head. “No. I’m not going to hide out. I still have a job to do. I’ll just have to be more careful.”
Her eyes started to burn with anger.
“And you’re a fucking superhero? Do you think that whomever he called to have you killed won’t just bring in a sniper to take you out from a thousand yards away?” She hissed.
“A thousand yards is unlikely to ever happen,” I told her. “But yeah, a sniper has crossed my mind.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “So what are you going to do?”
“Find the fucker before he finds me,” I snapped.
“What does that have to do with me?” She asked slowly, sensing there was something else.
“It means that I’m going to have to let you go…and hope that they didn’t find out about you in the short time that I’ve been with you,” I said slowly, willing her to understand.
She looked like I’d punched her in the gut.
“You’re… you’re letting m-me g-go?” She asked softly.
I felt like the biggest asshole in the world.
Doors opened, signaling the club members leaving as quietly as they could, and I hated myself for wishing they were still here.
Lenore would’ve tried harder not to break down had they still been here.
But now with the room empty of just her and me, she started to cry, ripping a motherfucking hole in my chest the size of China.
“God,” she whispered. “God.”
“I don’t know if they’ve even found out about you…this may all be for nothing. But I have to try. I want you to be safe. I need you to be safe,” I told her. “Nothing will happen to you.”
Her lips tightened.
“And if they do find out we were together? What then?” She replied.
“Then we’ll go from there. Our informant said he hasn’t heard so much as a whisper about you yet. So we’re going to go on the fact that they don’t know we were together. Because they’d use you to get to me. They’re going to try to lure me out by taking my ex, first. When that doesn’t work, they’re going to go for something else. Look for a current girlfriend in hopes that I’ll come out for you. But when they don’t find one, they’ll have to think of something else. And I’m hoping with that time, it’ll allow me to find them before they get to me.”
“That’s insane,” she whispered, moving until she was straddling my thighs.
My hands went to her hips, and I tried extremely hard not to stare at her unbound breasts.
“That’s all I’ve got for now,” I said. “We don’t know enough yet to get him.”
“You know who he is?” She whispered, leaning forward.
Her breasts pressed against my chest, and I had to close my eyes at the look of need in her eyes.
“Yeah, we have a fairly good idea who he is,” I answered evasively.
The less she knew, the better.
“So what…we’re just done? Until when?” She asked, tears forming once again in her eyes.
“For now,” I told her, cupping her face.
Her head leaned forward until it rested against mine.
Forehead to forehead.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “If I’d known it was going to be like that, I would’ve never gone over there.”
“Did you get the information you needed to get to the next step?” She asked.
I nodded.
Her head moved with mine, and our lips brushed.
“Yeah.”
“Then it was worth it.”
I wasn’t so sure.
I could’ve found that out in a different way.
Maybe not threatened Justin as I had.
But I had, and look where that led me.