Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 121887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
“It’s not that,” Jinx lied.
“It is. It’s—” Raye started.
“Leave it,” Titus ordered quietly. “She’ll clue in. And if she doesn’t, she’ll pay the price.”
Wise words.
At this juncture, Shanti queried, “Um…is anyone still reeling about how badass all of that was?”
Oh yeah.
We all were.
“I’m reeling about how I’m going to manage sustaining still being mad at Cap, which he deserves, at the same time jumping his bones and fucking him stupid, which he also deserves, because that was all kinds of hot,” Raye replied.
She was so right.
“It’s big,” Willow said.
Since this didn’t make sense in the current convo, we all looked to her, but only Luna asked, “Sorry?”
“Whatever Kevin is hiding,” she answered. “Whatever he knew Trevor was into.” She turned to me. “You said Javi said he talked yesterday?”
I nodded.
She shook her head.
“If he did, if he told them everything, then they’d know what’s going on, they’d put a stop to it, and someone wouldn’t have come after Cap and Gabe today,” she replied.
I harked back to what I saw pass between her and Gabe earlier, and that she might have been freaking right alongside Raye when stuff started going down with Cap and Gabe in their vehicle tussle and chase, but I couldn’t get a lock on it before she spoke again.
“Kevin’s weak. Those guys put even minor pressure on him, he’d spill his guts. The fact that he didn’t means this is big. He’s scared. And he’s not scared of the Nightingale guys, so that means he’s scared of something even scarier than the Nightingale guys.”
We all sipped our palomas pensively on this thought because it was difficult to conjure up something scarier than the Nightingale guys. Especially after what we’d just seen. You know, with pulling into a driveway, stopping on a dime, hauling butt out of it armed, taking out tires with one shot, sprinting toward a vehicle with two men in it you knew meant you harm, extricating those men and subduing them in ten seconds flat, then disappearing them from the premises about five minutes later.
Yeah.
That was all kinda scary.
Kick butt and hot AF.
But scary.
We all took another contemplative sip of our palomas.
Jessie snapped out of it first. “You got anything on this for us, Titus?”
“Baby girl, you know I champion you women’s mission,” Titus said. “What you also need to know is, you get into this shit, you take baby steps. You don’t jump from feelin’ your way on the streets, developing a network, laying the foundation of a reputation, to wading in when a man gets his throat cut.”
More wise words.
But this time they were also scary.
“That said,” Titus carried on, “since it’s obvious I can’t stop you, if I knew something, I’d help you. But I got no lock on this. I’ve asked around, no one knows this guy who got whacked. No one knows dick. And before you ask, those two men who came in and out of my garage, I’ve never seen them either.”
Well, it was sweet he’d be in to help, but that wasn’t helpful.
We all took another sip of our palomas.
“Bitches!” Jinx snapped.
We all looked to her.
“He just gave you a clue,” she stated.
He did? I thought.
“He did?” Willow asked.
“If Titus doesn’t know the players,” Jinx explained, “this isn’t street.”
“Mm-hmm,” Titus agreed.
Oh boy.
We all looked at each other and not one of us did it easy.
Because, if this wasn’t street, we were wading into something else that was new, not just a guy who got dead in an ugly way.
And I could tell, even though we had no idea what we’d waded into, none of us had a good feeling about it.
EIGHTEEN
“THAT’S THE WAY LOVE GOES”
(JANET JACKSON)
That evening, standing in Javi’s bathroom, looking at myself in the mirror, I flicked at some of my bouncy curls before I leaned in and checked my shocking red lipstick.
Exceptional liner placement, flawless fill.
Okay.
Good.
I took one long last look and decided I was ready for my date with Javi.
I headed out, and halfway down the stairs, I turned to see my guy standing by his kitchen island, phone to his ear.
I almost tripped on my high-heeled gold sandals.
Javi was wearing a crisp, light-blue button-down and navy-blue trousers, and both looked cut to fit him personally. These with fantastic brown oxfords, though I could see that hot-guy sliver of skin between hem and shoe.
I didn’t know he could look more beautiful.
But dang, all cleaned up, he could look more beautiful.
It was then I almost tripped again when I saw the expression on his face as his eyes devoured me from across the space.
Total proof I’d done good with my dress. Bright red. Spaghetti straps. Deep cut at the bodice with loose ruffles hanging from the V. Another diagonal ruffle across the front of the short, flippy skirt and around the hem. I did gold hoops, a gold bangle, and the gold heels with a gold bag, and that was it with accessories.