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)
Only makes my life fucking harder.
“I’ll handle the logistics on my end. You worry about your product.” I check my watch. “You have ten minutes to unload.”
“Let’s get something straight, Prime. You don’t give me orders. You make requests and I consider them. Is that clear?” Carbone glances at Deanna. “Lovely to see you, Mrs. Spadaro.”
She inclines her head politely but says nothing.
I tap my watch. “Time’s ticking.”
Carbone laughs and shouts at his men to go faster. They carry crates from the truck to my U-Hauls, stacking them inside. It’s a tight fit, but the shipment luckily fills all three with barely space to spare.
Standing to the side and looking on is the most demeaning moment of my life. Carbone’s using my lots and my trucks and my logistics like they’re his own fucking plaything. It kills me, listening to him barking orders, ignoring me while he does it. This is my land, my castle, and I’m the king here.
Only I’m not anymore.
And I have to eat it. There’s nothing I can do but watch.
Deanna holds my hand the whole time. She keeps me grounded and reminds me why I’m doing this.
Without her, I’d have no reason to keep going.
Killing Fontana was my whole life. Looking back, I can see the straight line. My obsession with amassing power and strength was always about finding a way to end Augustus Fontana’s life for what he did to Shawn. Even as I found real friendship with Stellan, even as I found a place in the Corsetti mafia, even as I excavated some tiny fraction of purpose, none of it mattered.
In my core, it was always death.
Revenge built me.
And now that scaffolding is collapsed.
But Deanna’s holding me up. She’s my new purpose. A stronger, brighter purpose.
She’s a future, where revenge was only ever an end.
“Not bad for a first run.” Carbone wipes his palms on his jeans as his men finish locking up the trailer. “But we’ll iron out the wrinkles next time.”
“It’d help if you told me what you were bringing.”
“You’re lucky I tell you whatever I choose to tell you, Prime. Don’t forget, you’re under my boss’s boot now.” Carbone turns his back to me. “Until next time.”
He stalks off. I watch the truck pull out, engine roaring as it disappears down the street and away into the distance.
Quiet settles on the lot.
“You okay?” Deanna touches my arm.
“I’m fine.” I walk over and slam the back of the last U-Haul. I make sure all three are locked. “I should get moving. I only thought I’d have to make one trip, but looks like I have more.”
“Want me to drive?”
“Fuck no. If I get caught with a load of drugs in the back, that’s bad enough. I won’t have my wife go down because I’m feeling lazy.”
“Prime, it’ll be okay.”
I climb behind the wheel of a truck and look out the window. “Yeah, maybe it will. See you at home.”
She smiles and waves as I back out and start the first leg of the trip on my own, a long day ahead of me.
CHAPTER 31
DEANNA
It’s a rare Friday with my husband in the office.
Strange how nothing feels different. Same people, same inane break room chatter, same dirty looks in the hallways. None of them realize what’s happening to Prime, but I can see it all, see how ugly it is up close, and it’s killing me.
We’re on the third shipment. Prime runs them all personally, or at least the first leg of the trip. After that it’s people who aren’t loyal to Stellan moving the goods. Each drop seems to hurt him more, make him shrink, and it breaks me seeing him like that.
Watching him suffer to keep me safe.
Prime’s always been big. He’s swagger and aura. He’s got more confidence than anyone I’ve ever met. He walks into a room and knows he has the biggest dick, biggest bank account, and best smile. More often than not, he’s right.
Now it’s like he’s a shadow of that man.
I hate it so much it’s like a cancer in my heart.
“Knock knock. You look like you need a break.” I peek into his office.
He glances up from his laptop. “I’m fine. Looking at reports.”
“Which reports?”
“The ones you sent me this morning.”
I slip inside and shut the door. “Seriously Prime? You’re actually reading my emails now?”
“I’ve always read your emails.”
“That’s straight up not true. I send you reports a week before you need the data on the assumption you’ll take forever to look at them.”
“You’re telling me I’m doing work I don’t need to do right now?”
“I’m saying—“ I sit on the edge of his desk. “You need a break.”
He sighs and puts his hands behind his head. There’s a ghost of a smile on his lips and I catch a glimpse of the man I fell in love with. “True, doing stuff really takes it out of me.”