Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 88182 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88182 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
I turn to face him. I touch his cheek and kiss him. “Her name was Valentina. And look at me. In my husband’s arms. Lying in bed with the man I love.”
“A rotten, self-destructive idiot.”
“Yeah, that too.”
“But you’re right.” His thumb grazes my cheek. “I never imagined it in my wildest daydreams, not even when I sent what's-her-name away.”
“I just said it!”
“Doesn’t matter.” His lips find mine. “But I can’t live like this. You know that. With Fontana owning me… hiding what I’ve done from Stellan…”
“Do you have to keep it from your boss?”
“I won’t be able to for long.”
“What happens if you go to him?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve never fucked up so badly before.”
“Prime…” I close my eyes and lean into him. “It’s my fault.”
“Don’t do that.”
“We both know it’s true. If you didn't care about me, Carbone wouldn’t be able to use me against you. That’s why he visited at my parents’ house… he was preparing the trap.”
“It’s not important.”
“We’re going to find a way out of this.” I push back, my hands on his chest. His heart’s a steady rhythm under my fingers and it gives me more strength than I thought I had. “I mean it. You and me, no self-destruction, no suicidal murder schemes. We’re going to fix this.”
His smile doesn’t seem like he believes me, but he leans in and kisses the corner of my mouth. “If anyone can figure it out, it’ll be you. There’s a reason I let you run my businesses.”
“You finally admit it.” I kiss him hard, breathing in through my nose, more determined than I’ve been in a long time, and even if there’s no sunlight outside our window and no real chance there ever will be again, that won’t stop me from trying to fix this anyway.
CHAPTER 30
PRIME
Two-thirty in the afternoon. I’m sweating through my work shirt. There are only a few cars parked in this far-flung lot at the very edge of my parking empire. Deanna’s sitting on a pylon rapping a pen against her clipboard, one heel banging a steady beat like she’s got a song in her head.
I could watch her for hours.
Everything’s grim. It all feels wrong. The only reason I’m here without a gun is her. I hate it, this cage I’ve wrapped around myself, but I need to learn patience.
A truck comes rumbling down the street. It slows and makes a wide turn toward us.
Deanna looks up. She clicks her pen and slips it behind her ear. “Bigger than I expected.”
“Much bigger,” I agree, a knot of frustration in my chest. “Are you sure I can’t kill them?”
She comes to stand by my side. Her hand slips into mine and she hangs against me. “Another time, okay?”
“You ruin my fun.”
“That’s not what you were saying last night.”
“I wasn’t saying anything. You were sitting on my fucking face.”
“Hey!” She bites my shoulder playfully. “I wasn’t saying anything either. I had a big dick in my mouth.”
I kiss her fiercely, not caring who can see.
The truck stops nearby. Its gears grind and brake pressure releases in a sharp hiss. The door opens and Marco Carbone climbs down followed by three more Fontana outfit thugs, all of them openly carrying weapons.
“I wasn’t sure I’d see you,” Carbone says, stopping a few feet away. The rig continues to idle as one of his men goes around to open the back.
“What the fuck is that?” I gesture at the trailer. “We agreed to a small first shipment.”
“Plans changed. We need a full drop today.” Carbone’s eyes narrow. “Will that be a problem?”
I want to kill him. Rage flows through me like lava. I could do it too—I have a gun against the small of my back and I’d bet my life I’m faster than Carbone’s men.
But the trouble is, they’d end me soon after, and Deanna would die in the crossfire.
Not a chance I can take, even if there’s nothing more I want in the world than to see Marco Carbone’s eyes go lifeless and dim.
I want the last thing he sees to be my smiling, blood-soaked face.
“We’ll make it work,” Deanna says, patting my chest like she’s calming a rabid dog.
“That’s good to hear. Should we get going?” He looks around with a frown. “Where’s your vehicle?”
I gesture at several U-Haul-marked trucks. “I’m assuming they’ll be enough.”
“Better be.” Carbone snaps at his closest thug. “Get it opened and start unloading. I want to be out of this shit hole in less than an hour.”
“Yes, sir.” The thugs hurry off.
Carbone turns back to me. “You don’t have help?”
“Nobody I can use for this.”
“Why’s that?” Carbone’s sneer is disgusting. “Worried your boss might find out?”
I stare him down and don’t bother to reply, but he’s exactly right. I don’t fully trust my own men to keep this from Stellan, which is a good thing. It means they’re loyal to the Corsetti Famiglia, as they should be.