Total pages in book: 188
Estimated words: 185811 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 929(@200wpm)___ 743(@250wpm)___ 619(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 185811 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 929(@200wpm)___ 743(@250wpm)___ 619(@300wpm)
His first call would normally be the Chaos Motorcycle Club. Mac wasn’t one of theirs, neither was Smithie, but they had ties to Lee, they could keep a secret, and they didn’t dick around when it came to women and their safety.
But they’d just come out of a war, and like any war, that had been some serious fucked-up shit.
They needed a breather.
Lee, and Chaos, also had ties to…
“Well, hell,” Smithie muttered, the words on the letter blurring, the sick feeling in the back of his throat easing.
He dropped the letter and picked up his cell.
If you couldn’t call a badass…
Then it was far from second best to call a commando.
“Let me see it.”
Smithie lifted his eyes from his laptop on which he was doing the club’s accounts to the tall, built, black-haired man prowling through the door.
Behind him strode a man that even gave Smithie, who this didn’t happen to often, a tingle of, “Holy fuck, don’t let me meet that guy in an alley.”
“Well, hey there, motherfucker,” Smithie greeted the man in the lead. A man known as Hawk. “And by the way, come on in.”
Hawk Delgado had made it to the front of Smithie’s desk.
He stopped there and held out his hand.
“Smithie, let me see the letter.”
Seeing as the man was wearing a tight black T-shirt over black cargos and black cargo boots, looking like he was about to invade Somalia, and more, could, but he was in an office over a strip club in Denver, Smithie dug the letter out from under a bunch of stuff on his desk and handed it to Hawk.
The hulk behind Hawk edged closer and read over his boss’s shoulder.
While reading it, Hawk’s face only tightened a little.
The face of the man behind him went from scary to Jesus fucking shit.
“I read it to you over the phone,” Smithie reminded him.
He didn’t have to, and Hawk didn’t have to remind Smithie that he was a busy guy, but Smithie had phoned and Elvira, Hawk’s assistant, had picked up. He’d read the letter to her and she hadn’t messed around with getting her boss on the line.
When Hawk heard it, Hawk got un-busy, called Smithie, then Smithie had read the letter to him.
So he’d made even more time to drop on by.
And there he was, tight-faced and clearly taking that letter as seriously as Smithie took it.
He finished reading and looked at Smithie.
“Before this one, you get any more of these?” Hawk asked.
Smithie shook his head. “Though I think one is enough, don’t you?”
He handed the letter over his shoulder to the monster behind him.
“One is enough,” Hawk agreed. “You got the envelope?”
Smithie dug out the envelope the letter came in and handed it over.
Hawk didn’t even look at it. He gave it direct to the man behind him.
Then he asked, “You call the cops?”
“You know who Lottie Mac’s sister is?”
Hawk’s mouth tightened even further.
He also knew how gonzo Eddie Chavez would go if he knew someone had written that letter about Mac. And any cop who read that letter would go straight to Eddie.
“Charlotte McAlister know about that letter?” Hawk asked.
Now Smithie understood Hawk definitely knew who Mac’s sister was. He knew who Mac was. That letter didn’t refer to Mac as anyone but Lottie Mac and “Charlotte McAlister” was not the name Smithie used on the marquee.
“I haven’t shared…” he paused, “yet.”
“She get an escort home?” Hawk kept at him.
“To her car at night.” After he gave him that, Smithie shook his head again and wished he wasn’t doing it. “Not home.”
“Fuck,” Hawk muttered.
“She will now,” Smithie told him. “In fact, I got a guy sittin’ on her house right now, which is where she is. She was here, but she took off and I put a man on her.”
Hawk jerked his head to the man standing behind him. “He’ll be relieved by Mo.”
Well, all right.
Smithie could get on board with that beast being Mac’s bodyguard.
Smithie stood. “I approve of your selection, Delgado, but what next?”
“We track that asshole down and put him out of commission,” Hawk replied immediately.
And it didn’t take long to slide right into the gray area with Hawk Delgado.
No, that wasn’t it.
Lee could do gray and did. All the time.
When it came to Delgado, shit got downright murky.
“What would that entail?” Smithie asked.
“Do you care?” Hawk returned.
“Kinda, considering I’m payin’ you for this shit,” Smithie told him.
“Whatever it needs to entail,” Hawk answered. “That letter,” Hawk did another head jerk, “we’ll need to make absolutely certain our message is received. Could be building a case to hand over to the cops. Could be something else.”
Right. For now, he could deal with that.
“Mac needs protection,” Smithie stated.
Hawk nodded his agreement. “And she’ll have Mo. Twenty-four seven. We aren’t Secret Servicing this shit, even if we are. He’s on her, day and night. He sleeps on the floor by her bed if she doesn’t have a chair or something in her bedroom. He goes to the grocery store with her. He stands outside the bathroom while she’s showering. I’m thinking you can fill in the rest of that picture.”