Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 70004 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70004 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
I didn’t have the kind of life conducive with being this happy.
I…
“Romeo.”
Apollo’s snap had me blinking past the panic. “Yeah?”
“Don’t freak out,” he repeated.
Yeah right.
Easy for him to say.
His whole life wasn’t currently flashing before his eyes.
“Got the boys rounded up. Gentry’s at the police station watching the girl’s so-called stepmother. Get down to the country club so we can make plans.” He paused. “Leave Mable behind. I want to get everything figured out before we bring her in.”
“Will do,” I said, stomach souring. “They need me right now?”
“Yeah,” Apollo said. “Waiting on you.”
I ground my teeth and cursed again inwardly.
Of course this was my life.
“I’m booking a flight back now.”
I’d no sooner hung up with Apollo just to have to answer it again when Gentry called.
“What?” I growled.
“We have a problem, man,” Gentry said carefully. “She’s in custody. But she knows, man. She wants to talk to your girl.”
I gritted my teeth.
“She knows about all of us? Or just me?” I asked.
Six months.
That was all that I’d gotten.
I’d have to move.
I’d have to…
“Just you for now,” he said. “I…” He paused. “Guess I’ll meet you at the country club.”
The country club had become our de facto home base.
When we’d moved here, Apollo had seen the huge, stuck-up facility had been put on the market, and he’d seen the opportunity for what it was.
A place that was practically made for people like us who just wanted to exist in peace.
The country club was more of a resort for the crème de la crème of the upper crust of society to have a place to go when they came down to go skiing during the winter.
It wasn’t my favorite place to go, due to mainly the type of people that frequented it, but it offered the discretion that was needed in a time like this.
“See you in half an hour,” I murmured.
At some point Mable had sat up and started to clean up around where we’d been lounging.
When I got finished with my call with Gentry, she was in the kitchen putting away a charcuterie board she’d made at some point.
“I have to run by the country club,” I muttered. “I don’t know when I’ll be back.”
She smiled at me, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “I should go home anyway. I have no clothes to wear tomorrow for church that are clean, nor do I have any work clothes ready to go for Monday. Do you want me to take yours and wash them, too?”
I was already shaking my head. “No.”
If I didn’t have my clothes, that meant that if I needed to leave, I couldn’t without first stopping by her place.
And I just didn’t think I’d be able to say goodbye to her if I did have to leave.
I wasn’t built like that.
To say goodbye to Mable would likely rip my heart out…
She finished putting the food away, then walked to the door and slipped her tennis shoes on, not bothering to change her clothes out of the ones of mine she’d been wearing.
My heart panged in my chest at the thought of her having them.
By the end of the week, my scent would be off them.
Eventually, she wouldn’t wear them at all.
I’d just be a bad memory that she thought about every once in a while.
When she was in her shoes, she stood up and pursed her lips.
Even that made my stomach clench.
I moved toward her and cupped her face.
After placing the kiss of a lifetime on those upturned lips, I said, “Take care of yourself, Mable Louise.”
She scoffed. “I always do.”
Twenty-Three
Look, man or woman. I’ll punch whoever needs it. These hands are rated E for everybody.
—Odin to Romeo
Romeo
Everyone was there when I arrived.
“You would fuck this up for us,” Odin grumbled.
I narrowed my eyes. “I was the only fuckin’ reason that you had this opportunity in the first place, cocksucker.”
“Uh-huh.” Weaver rolled his eyes.
King, Gentry, Courtland, Creed, and Odin didn’t add much.
Not like there was anything to add.
“What are we going to do?” Weaver asked.
Just as he asked that, our phones rang.
Before anyone could answer, Apollo’s face popped up on the screen in the conference room we’d commandeered.
“I couldn’t leave,” he said as he focused on each of us individually. “She has a tap on my location, and I don’t want her to think that I’m running there to fix anything. I need to appear like y’all mean nothing to me.”
I gritted my teeth.
“She’s set up some fail-safes,” Apollo said. “Until I can disentangle those”—he looked at me then—“I think it’s time to disappear for a bit.”
Fuck.
Even though I knew he was going to say it, it still felt like a blow directly to my chest.
My heart skipped a beat, and it took everything I had to keep breathing.
“Good,” Odin said. “I like it here. I don’t want to have to leave unless I have to.”