Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 121755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
“What’s this?” Titus interjected.
Harlow bopped excitedly on the couch. “Oh, Titus! You haven’t heard? We delivered Jinx to her accountant last night.”
“It was so dreamy,” Gemma cooed.
“Totally. We pretty-womaned the shit outta that,” Jessie bragged.
“He finally made his play,” Luna filled in.
On the “made his play” comment, Titus looked to Shanti.
Shanti brushed some nonexistent dust from her jeans.
Luna’s eyes narrowed on Shanti’s movement.
I took a sip of my drink rather than clearing my throat.
Jessie took up the story. “He asked for them to level up their relationship by asking her to move in. Jinx threw it in his face. He started missing his regular meetups. She got twisted up about it, because they’re obviously in love, she just didn’t think she could hope for anything good to happen to her because her life, seriously, has been some bad shit. We had some huddles and talked her into giving it a go. Last night, we took her to apologize and to tell him she was ready to explore a relationship. She got not a word out before he picked her up and carried her in his big mansion with its pool and view of the mountains.”
“It took some doing,” I put in. “She was nervous as all hell. There was a kerfuffle.”
“Kerfuffle?” Titus asked, and I wasn’t sure how he did it, but him saying that word in his deep, smooth Miles Caton voice was both sexy and adorable.
“Yeah,” Harlow confirmed. “She tried to close the door on us, so we essentially had to break into her house and force her to sit down for a peptalk.”
“She was practically catatonic when we did,” Raye said.
“But we got through to her in the end,” Luna completed our Pretty Woman tale.
Once this was out, Titus was silent for a long time.
And then he said quietly, “You bitches are the shit.”
Wow.
Totally feeling warm and fuzzy about that.
“Now,” he homed in on Raye, “the rest of your plan.”
“Right,” Raye said. “So we smooth things over with the big man, he gets the money and gets to keep the payload. Then we go back to Dex and tell him he’s fucked. The money is gone. No drugs for his crew to push. And if he doesn’t leave Duane alone, he’s going to be even more fucked.”
This was a good plan, simple, but it made a statement, and Dex and Amy were screwed in the process.
I wasn’t sure Dex was smart enough to understand the Angels were a threat.
But no one was dumb enough to miss Titus was one.
“To set up this deal with this guy,” Titus said, “that money is gonna be big money. And there’s a good chance he’s already planning to have it and the dope anyway. If there ever was any dope he considered giving this guy. So I think you might want to deliver the full payment.”
Duane’s house really needed painting, but I saw the wisdom of this.
“As much as it would be nice for Duane to get something out of this, agreed,” Raye said.
At this point, Raye and Titus got into the specifics of the plan.
I half-listened and half-tuned into Shanti.
She really did seem to be chill about all of this.
So I admired her ability to be a huge-ass faker.
However, when it was time to leave, we all gave Titus our usual hugs, except Shanti, who just stood at the door, and while we were filing out, she waved at him.
Luna made it to the cars at the curb before she turned on Shanti and asked, “Okay, what the fuck was that?”
“What was what?” Shanti asked back.
“You giving Titus the cold shoulder,” Luna explained.
“She was?” Gemma inquired.
“I noticed the no hug at the end,” Jessie remarked.
“I asked him out,” Shanti announced.
Everyone (but me) sucked in an audible breath.
“He shot me down,” Shanti continued.
Another audible suckage of breath to the point I thought the lot of them would pass out.
“I put myself out there, he was really nice, but he said no.” Shanti shrugged. “No big deal.”
“Titus thinks it’s a big deal. He was all eyes for you most of the time,” Luna pointed out.
“He’s a nice guy,” Shanti returned. “He’s worried about me and what we’ll become after what happened. And I was giving him indication we’re cool, and it’s business as usual.”
“But…no hug?” Harlow asked.
“You wanna hug someone who you shared you liked him like that, and he shared he wasn’t going to take you there?” Shanti asked.
“Good point,” Joey mumbled.
“We’ll get back to a good place,” Shanti assured. “Just maybe some other time, not the next time I see him after he turned me down.”
Everyone gave Shanti a good hard look to see if she was okay about this.
Apparently, they decided she was okay because we piled into our cars.
But, after Raye ran it down one last time what we were going to do the next night, and we all left to head home, it was only me who sat in my car, and after I texted Gabe I was on my way, I texted Shanti, Be straight. You really okay?