Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 91423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
We keep driving, looking dead ahead, neither one of us wanting to give in and give the information. For a good hour, we both hold out, playing a game of conversational chicken. Then it starts to feel like just normal driving and I forget that we’re waiting each other out.
“The girl at the funeral,” Luke says suddenly, jolting me very much back into my body.
“What about her?”
“Teddy knew her. He wanted to date her. Or was dating her. And I was going to try to find her. I figured if I could do it while the two of you were busy looking in other places, or Aiden was taking care of business or whatever.”
“Teddy wanted to date her? Or he did date her?”
“Teddy loved her,” Luke says. “I think he wanted to marry her. But I also think she’s caught up in all of this. There’s something about her.”
“Yeah,” I say. “There is.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I mean she’s the reason I had that involuntary bender,” I tell him. “I took her and wanted to get information out of her, and have some fun along the way.”
Bam!
The steering wheel jerks to the side. I fight to control the vehicle with one side of my head ringing. Luke has just punched me in the ear, a blow that jolts me into a fury and makes me slam on the brakes.
“What the fuck did you do to her?” Luke demands, his fist cocked for another blow.
“The fuck, Luke,” I curse. I may not be Aiden, but I am still his older brother. I can still beat the shit out of him if I have to.
“I know what you do to women. If you did that shit to her, to the woman he loved? I’m going to beat your ass…”
“First of all, little brother,” I growl. “We don’t know if Teddy was being tricked or not. She’s not as innocent as she looks. And none of us owe allegiance to a dead man’s date. If you hit me again, I am going to make you regret it.”
Something in my tone and my eyes gets through Luke’s oafish aggression. He lowers his fist.
“What did you do to her?”
“I’m not going to tell you that.”
“You slept with her?”
“Yes.”
“Get out of the car,” Luke growls.
“Why?”
“Because I want you to be able to defend yourself the next time I hit you.”
I am not in the mood for this, but Luke’s decided to play knight in shining armor to a girl he doesn’t know.
“You know she could very easily have had everything to do with his death, right? She could have been the one who fucking killed him? She was happy enough to leave me for dead.”
“He loved her.”
“I don’t give a fuck.”
“Get out of the car and fight me like a man,” Luke demands.
“If I get out of this car, I am going to put you in the fucking hospital, you little shit,” I growl. “Don’t be angry because I got to her first. You had the same chances I had. You just decided to get fucking high first.”
“That was a ruse!”
“Was it? Was it a ruse to get into an illegal fighting match? Come back high as a fucking kite? Was that all a ruse? Because, little brother, I was fucking her the whole time you were crashing and burning.”
He tries to punch me in the face again, but I deflect the blow and he catches an elbow to the jaw.
He’s right about fighting in a car being stupid. I throw open the driver’s door, Luke hurls himself over the hood of the car and the two of us fight as we haven’t since we were teenagers.
I never imagined Luke would be so protective of a girl he doesn’t even know, but deep down he’s not fighting me. He’s fighting for Teddy, the way he never got to. All that rage he needs to get out is being unleashed on me. As for me, I take the blows and give a few back. He will always be my little brother, and I will never truly hurt him. I will, however, put him in his place when he needs it, so I have no intention of letting him win. He can tire himself out, and then he can apologize.
We’ve traded blows for a few minutes when a sleek black vehicle draws up alongside us. The window rolls down, and a man wearing dark sunglasses and a dark suit lowers the sunglasses to address us as we grip one another, bloodied and panting and feeling better, I hope and assume because I do not have the energy for another round.
“Mr. Levin wishes to enjoy the pleasure of your company,” the man says.
We know they’ll be mercenaries, ex-military for sure. Aiden’s private army is legendary. It’s things like this that make it feel so very strange that Teddy could ever have been killed. But no army is infallible, and no surveillance is perfect.