Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 77160 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77160 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
I thought I knew all of Frank’s henchmen. But this guy wasn’t familiar at all.
Was he new?
Did he have a bigger crew than I realized?
Or was this something else entirely?
“Well, do you?” I asked Frank.
“Do I what?”
“Want him to shut me up? That’d be weird. Since all you’ve ever wanted is my attention. You have it. So are you going to have him shut me up, or…”
“So you admit you were a fucking tease.”
This was good.
This kept things personal.
Instead of about, I imagined, the whole office incident.
“Tell me, Frank, how long did the women who sang before me last after they fucked you?”
He stiffened at the word.
Because I’d always been nothing but sweet and flirty, never vulgar, around him.
“That has nothing to do with it.”
“It has everything to do with it. I’m here because I needed a job. Job security is kind of the name of the game.”
“We’re wasting time,” the guy behind me said.
Frank’s eyes flicked up to him.
If I hadn’t been watching so closely, I might have missed it. The way fear sliced across his face.
Oh.
So that was it.
He wasn’t in charge here.
Milo mentioned that Remo figured there might be someone pulling Frank’s strings.
These guys that I didn’t recognize, they must have belonged to whoever that shadowy guy was.
That made this even more dangerous.
“Oh,” I said, brows raising as I looked at Frank. “So, you’re not actually in charge here, are you? Wow. That must… sting a little, huh?”
“We gotta get this over with,” the man behind me said, reaching toward me, and it took actual effort not to flinch or yelp.
But he only reached for my purse, dragging it off my shoulder, and pulling my phone out before tossing the bag to the floor.
It landed next to the pit boss.
“Unlock it,” the man demanded, thrusting my real phone at me.
“What do you think you’re going to find in here?” I asked, typing in my code. “My super-secret plans to take the casino out from under Frank?”
I rolled my eyes at him.
He ignored me as he started swiping around on my phone.
He wouldn’t find anything.
A couple of awkward texts with my mom. Maybe the occasional Happy Birthday! or congratulatory message to the other models I used to work with. Pictures of my cat. Screenshots of things I wanted to buy but couldn’t afford. A few listings for jobs.
I led an incredibly boring personal life.
If he was looking for the smoking gun, he would only find it shoved in a secret pocket on my side. So I made sure to keep that arm casually down.
“So, what is it, Frank?” I asked while the other guy was distracted. “Gambling? I mean, that would be so cliché, given this place. Ponies? Sports? No,” I said, thinking of his pack-rat office, of the hallways lined with boxes. “No. You’re addicted to shopping. Wow. Men in women’s fields,” I said, getting a huff of laughter out of the other woman.
Frank was tomato-red.
I knew I’d hit the nail on the head.
“What’d you have to do? Borrow money to keep this place afloat?”
“When did you become such a bitch?” Frank asked, tone hollow.
“Gee, I don’t know. When you had me grabbed and dragged into a back room? Maybe then.”
“There’s nothing here,” the man said, tossing the phone. It landed with a cracking sound that would have had my heart plummeting just a week or two ago, knowing I couldn’t afford to replace it. Such a small concern in the grand scheme of things now. “Who the fuck are you working with?”
His hand shot out so quickly that I couldn’t move back or duck. His fingers closed around my throat, grabbing hard, yanking me forward like a damn rag doll.
My hand went up automatically, clawing at his hand as my breath caught in my lungs, as my head felt light, and my lips went tingly.
My mouth opened and closed like a fish.
“How’s she going to answer if you’re choking her, idiot?” the pit boss asked.
The man watched me for a second more, his dark eyes like pits, with no soul behind them at all.
Then he released me, took a step to the side, and backhanded the other woman so hard she flew off the chair.
I gasped for breath, tears stinging my eyes as I furiously tried to blink them back.
On the ground, the other woman dripped blood from her split lip onto the concrete floor.
She made no move to get up.
But her gaze was fiery, furious when it met mine.
Then the guy was back, grabbing me and shoving me down onto the other metal chair. The pain ricocheted up my back, making me think my butt was going to be bruised from the impact.
“Who are you working with?” he roared.
The sound made me jolt, but I angled my head up, chin defiant.
“I work for Frank.”
I guess I didn’t expect the strike to come so fast, so hard. But his fist collided with my jaw. It may as well have been concrete with how hard it was, how much it hurt.