Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 139088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 695(@200wpm)___ 556(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 695(@200wpm)___ 556(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
I said nothing. No way was I going to express gratitude for a compliment from this joker.
“Hope you don’t fuck his ass over like his mother did to me,” he went on.
I remained silent.
Mr. Chambers let this go on for some time. I got antsy during this time.
Finally, he broke it.
“I need you to do me a favor,” he declared. “I need you to get in touch with my boy and tell him to call his fuckin’ sister and tell her I want my product back…and my other two boys.”
Hold up…
Crew and Poe disappeared with Gypsy?
And they took his cache when they left?
“You still got your purse,” he continued. “So how about you get out your phone and see to that?”
Hold up again…
He was going to let me call Knox?
Swiftly, I pulled my bag off my shoulder and dug in it to find my phone.
“While you two are chatting,” he said, and I looked to him to see he was now sitting back in his chair, fingers steepled in front of him, like the villain in an old spy thriller, “tell him to tell them they got twenty-four hours to make this right. Vincente can have the women. I want Rocco too. And you tell Knox, I don’t get what I want, things are going to start happening to you. So if they balk, he and his badass friends might have to start figuring out a plan B to get me back what’s mine.”
Oh shit.
“Now, I want you to make it clear that this isn’t the way I want to play it,” he added. “Way Gypsy tells it, you’re gonna be my daughter-in-law.”
Confirmed: Gypsy watched her brother.
“I don’t wanna have to cut off any digits from my future daughter-in-law,” he continued.
Cut off digits.
Great.
Fabulous.
Shit.
“But I’ve made promises,” he carried on. “I got deliveries that are already gonna be late. My kids know because I taught them, business comes first. Knox has been gone awhile, but I reckon he remembers this too.”
Oh, he remembered.
I waited.
“You aren’t calling,” he prompted.
“I didn’t know whether to ask for a notepad so I can write it all down if you had more,” I returned.
He smiled, and damn, it sucked he was handsome. He even had that subtle cleft in his chin that Knox had.
But it figured.
Knox didn’t look at all like his mom, so he had to get it from somewhere.
It still sucked.
“I knew I’d like you.”
I didn’t want him to like me.
I wanted to get out of here and do it without anyone I cared about getting hurt.
Because there was one thing I knew about those men, especially my man.
They’d get hurt before I got hurt.
I bent to my phone, trying to figure out how I could code my language so Knox knew what they were dealing with when they stormed this place.
Because they were going to storm this place.
I hadn’t figured that out by the time I hit his contact and put the phone to my ear.
“Luna?” he answered, and yeah, I could tell in those two syllables they were gonna storm this place.
“It’s me,” I said.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Yes. I’m fine,” I replied. “Listen, your dad has a message.”
“You on speaker?”
“No. I’m unhurt.”
“We’re outside.”
Of course they were.
“Okay. Honestly, I really am fine,” I said.
Knox said nothing, but I could practically feel him listening.
“Nine,” I blurted, because yeah…I was just that smooth. Then quickly, “Your dad wants his product back. And your brothers and Rocco. In twenty-four hours. Or I might not be fine.”
“Nine men with you?”
“Yes, your dad said that.”
“Ten men.”
“Yes. That’s what he said.”
“Okay, baby. It starts happening, you get low and safe.”
“He says Vincente can have the women. He just wants his product, and the men. He has deliveries to make.”
“Okay. Can you give me a hint where you are?”
“He looks like you.”
“I know.”
I stared at his father. “Just like you.”
“You’re looking at him now.”
I didn’t reply.
“Office?” he asked.
“I love you,” I answered.
“I know. Get safe and low. Promise me.”
“I’ll tell him.”
“Love you too. Not long now.”
“All right. Bye.”
I hung up and looked at Mr. Chambers, and now my body was wound up tight because he couldn’t have missed me blurting out the word “nine” for no reason, and he had to know he had nine men with him.
“He’s going to see what he can do,” I told him.
“That,” the man jabbed a finger at me, and I wound up even further at his angry gesture. “That right there was where I made my mistake. That’s how I lost Cynthia.” He threw both hands up. “Bitches, they don’t need much. A gesture here or there. I didn’t give her enough gestures.”
Well, backhanding her didn’t help, I was sure.
He sniffed and I refocused on him.
“My youngest son has looked down his nose on me his whole fuckin’ life. Swear, that kid came outta his mother smirking at me. But his woman out of his control, he’ll deliver his brothers and my shit.” He smiled in a way I did not like. “Finally, he’ll play my game, and he’ll hate it. He’ll fuckin’ stew on the fact he had to do it, and he’ll do that until his dying day. But, for you, he’ll do it. As for me, that’ll mean I bested his ass, and I get to live with that the rest of my life. Better, I get to live with it knowing he has to live with it too.”