Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 108988 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108988 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
He cursed under his breath. “I didn’t kill them. Scooter’s fine, by the way.”
“Who’s Scooter?”
“Never mind. I didn’t kill Walden, West, or either of their women.”
“Like that makes it better?”
“No.” He sighed. “I’ve already told you that you can’t put a leash on me.”
“Rules were no one good and no one innocent.”
He looked away. “There’s a lot of good people who do bad things.”
“I know.” I leaned forward and cupped his face, turning him to see me again. “You and I have already come to a compromise. You not killing Walden after he put a gun to my head, that’s huge progress.”
His eyes burned, and I was seeing how much it pained him not to do whatever he wanted to do against Walden. Then, he blinked, and some of the burning had faded. “I’d already taken him and tortured him prior. I’ve tried reminding myself of those memories. I wish I had taken video and I could replay it as much as I wanted.”
My eyebrows went to my forehead, because that was morbid. “Uh.” I waved that off. Different topic for a different day. “I just needed space, and you gave it, and thank you. So West told you about seeing me, huh? That must’ve brought him such joy. Being the one to tell you before you were told by anyone else.”
He ran a gentle hand up the side of my face and tucked some stray hair behind my ears. “I got him back.”
I opened my eyes again. “What’d you do? And please tell me it’s not sending us into another war. Marshall already got shot. If Palma gets shot, I think Levi would revolt. So that leaves Heath, and I don’t think his brothers would be happy with you.”
“West’s brother-in-law is going to work for me.”
“Wha-what?” I blinked a few times. “His brother that you kidnapped?”
“His wife’s brother, and yes, I’ve been eyeing him. He wasn’t a part of West’s network. I approached, offered him a position in one of my clean businesses, and he took it.”
I blinked a few more times because that was kinda genius. “So you still ended up taking one of theirs after all.” I grinned, slowly. “I like it.”
“They took one of mine.”
Ah. I said faintly, “I wondered if you knew about Last.”
He watched me for a few seconds in silence. I wasn’t sure what he was looking for, but then he let out another sigh. Reaching over, he took my hand in his, pulling it to his lap, and laced our fingers together. “My shot didn’t go wide because West knocked into me. I wanted it to go wide. West jumping when he did was cosmic timing.”
“What do you mean?” I leaned forward, my free hand resting on his knee. “Why would you—” But I thought about it. There was only one explanation. “You did that to push him away?”
He shrugged, looking away, but I caught the flash there. It was something I’d only seen on his face when it came to me. Pain. A little bit of regret. He was feeling that about Lassiter. He cared. He did, about Last. About Levi.
He really was changing.
“Eight,” I whispered.
“He fought me on Pialto, so I knew there was already some interest there.”
A different thought came to me. “When did you learn Japanese?”
At my question, his eyes went flat again. Dead. My hand along with his fell with a thud to his flat stomach. “The first time I met someone who belonged to the Yakuza.”
“Are you serious?”
“Heath Nogoskeski was already in this house. There was a fire at the previous place Niko was living in. I had her transferred here. No one could move on the house unless they wanted to risk giving the Yakuza an excuse to launch their own push into the city as well. I had her assigned here as an added form of protection for you.”
“You orchestrated that?”
He wasn’t looking at my face. His gaze had fallen to our hands. He went back to tracing over our fingers.
“Hey.” I caught his chin and lifted it up. “Palma said they had another housemate who had to go back home. Something about a sick relative. Did you have a hand in that too?”
“I didn’t orchestrate her mom getting sick, but I did help open up their doctor’s schedule so they wouldn’t have to wait months to get the bad news.”
I wasn’t surprised anymore. “Were you behind the fire at Niko’s original place?”
His eyes flickered at me, but he didn’t comment.
I sighed, knowing what that meant. “What else should I know about?”
“Nothing major, but there’s a few things. Small things.”
My head was a mess. I knew he was capable of things like this, but to hear it all laid out, hearing that there was more, my mouth was suddenly so dry. My stomach dipped.
I had to ask. “Did you start this war because of me?”