Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 75450 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75450 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
“It’s not like I’m gonna shoot someone on their morning run and leave their body for the cops to find,” he’d said, shrugging it off as we ate Chinese in bed.
And I guess that made a lot of sense. If you wanted to keep running a criminal empire, you couldn’t let the bodies pile up, could you?
“So where do you put the bodies then?”
“Are we talking facts or hypotheticals?”
“Hypotheticals. I don’t want to be implicated,” I teased.
“Hypothetically, for most of the year, it’s relatively easy to dig a grave. If you got some time, it’s hypothetically not that far of a drive to the Pine Barrens, where a body might never be found. Hypothetically, you could still sink a body off the ocean or river if you know what you’re doing.”
I’d been full of a million questions then: about the organizations, about his personal connections to them, then, eventually, about his various family members and their involvement either in those crews… or not.
Most of his female cousins (or ‘club princesses,’ as he called them) had relatively normal jobs. But most of the boys ended up in the club at some point. Except one, who was a relatively well-known musician.
I’d been fascinated by it all. The crime, sure. But more so than that, the strange family dynamics of this club and the syndicates in the town. While, technically, I had a large extended family, almost all of them were back in Puerto Rico.
My parents had moved to the States together when they were in their early twenties, but none of the other family had followed. So while I did know of them, I didn’t really know many of them personally. I’d met a few when I’d visited after Vicky’s death, but it wasn’t the same as growing up with them. I didn’t have the kind of support system that Rune did.
And while my sister and I worked hard to make it feel like the two of us were more than enough, there was no way she didn’t feel the same longing I did when we watched holiday movies and saw all these big, chaotic, crazy, loving families all together. Some part of me had always craved that. Rune lived it.
“Sure. But you gotta promise not to refer to it as ‘mafia pizza’ when we go there.”
“Is it really a secret?”
“You know, it kind of is. I think some of the people of Navesink Bank are keen to what is really going down. But for the most part, I think everyone is in the dark. We try not to let our business spill into the streets. The mafia, especially. So I think ninety-nine percent of the people who go to one of Lucky’s pizza places, or who frequent Chaz’s bar, or even Redemption, are completely clueless who owns it and what other business they’re involved in.”
“You said the club has been a little more legit lately, though, right?”
“I mean, not necessarily. We still do what we do. But now on top of that, we also have our hands in several legitimate businesses.”
“Like Redemption.”
“And the shooting range. The car repair shop. And a couple others.”
“Have you ever considered opening anything like that?”
“Can’t say there are a lot of things I’m interested enough in to open a business for it. I could get behind a gym, but the town is teeming with them already. The Mallicks own one of them. My aunts own another. Don’t want to rock the boat with that. Would you?”
“Would I what? Cover up my super-secret crimes with a real business?”
“Hypothetically.”
“I guess? I mean, it seems like a good way to avoid issues with the government, right? Taxes and all that. Plus, I mean, a cleaning business also has some crime perks, right? Lots of access to cleaning supplies without suspicion. And the skills to clean up a crime scene.”
A chuckle escaped Rune.
“Careful, you’re starting to think like a criminal now.”
“I think I’ve proven what a terrible criminal I’d be. Couldn’t even shoot you when you were standing three feet from my face. Or, you know, track down the right person.”
“Eh, you were new at it. Who knows what you could accomplish if you applied yourself,” he teased.
“I think I will leave that to you,” I told him, getting to my feet. “I’m gonna take a shower too.”
“I’ll take the brace off,” he offered, reaching for my arm.
He was barely touching me, but it felt like every nerve ending was sparking at the touch, at his nearness.
He removed the brace, tossing it onto the dresser, then ran his thumb over the creases left behind on my skin.
My lungs felt pinched; my pulse skittered.
“Gotta stop looking at me like that,” Rune murmured.
“Like what?”
“You know what,” he said, lips twitching just enough for one of those dimples to show itself. “Need some help with the shirt?” he asked.