Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 115964 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 580(@200wpm)___ 464(@250wpm)___ 387(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115964 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 580(@200wpm)___ 464(@250wpm)___ 387(@300wpm)
I wasn’t waiting for him to change his mind.
I started to leave.
He stopped me at the door, saying, “But Raize.”
I turned back.
He was watching me, his phone in his hand. “Your woman. I get that, but you’re my man. Your woman is then therefore one of mine. If there comes a time when I’ll need to use what she can do, I will. You will bring her to me to do that.” His eyes were harsh. His tone was unrelenting. “There is no room for negotiations with this one, not if you continue to be in my employment. Do you understand me?”
I had to give him the answer he wanted.
I said, “Yes,” as I reached for the doorknob and I left.
I didn’t wait to be excused, but I knew as I left, I was on a leash and I would find how far that leash extended one day. As I went back out, my car was brought up for me, and I drove away because that day wasn’t today.
Now, what we had to do was the reason Ash had come into my life.
The irony wasn’t lost on me.
We were about to kidnap my sister.
51
Ash
Something was really wrong.
I sat up in bed, waiting for him until I saw a sweep of headlights pull into the driveway. I was in the middle of the bed, my arms hugging my legs, my knees pulled up against my chest. I was there, and it was a long time before he came in.
That said almost everything to me.
He didn’t want to come in.
Why?
I didn’t wait.
I moved across the bed, standing barefoot and I left.
I was in a tanktop and my underwear, but I hoped Cavers and Jake would be considerate, not come in if they were up? I didn’t know. At this point, I didn’t care.
I found him in the kitchen, a bottle of tequila next to him. The only light was a small nightlight that was left from the guest bathroom, and that’d been overlooked since we normally kept no lights on anywhere we stayed.
He didn’t turn to me, and my gut clenched.
I went to him, crawling onto his lap, my legs straddling him, and I pressed my hands to his chest.
He didn’t grab my legs. He always grabbed my legs.
“What happened?” I asked softly. I was treading with caution.
I’d never felt this from Raize, whatever this was.
He didn’t answer, staring off into the distance behind me.
“Hey.” I slid my hand around his neck, turning his head to see me. I bent down, eye to eye. And I began rubbing my other hand up and down over his chest, slipping under his shirt. “Tell me.”
Now he moved.
His eyes flashed, and his hands gripped my thighs, pulling me tight over him.
He swallowed, his Adam’s apple moving up and down once before he rasped out, “There was a hit on Morales and his girlfriend.”
I rocked back.
The only girlfriend that would affect Raize was his mother.
“Raize,” I murmured.
He kept on, his eyes going back to staring at something behind me. “She was left intact. They executed her with a shot to the forehead.”
I leaned back, trying to get him to look at me. He needed to see me, not whatever was in his head. “Raize.”
“It was Marco.”
“But if he did that? Took over the Morales Cartel?”
“Then he’d come for me…”
Our earlier conversation flared to memory. My question and his response about Marco Estrada, and a whole new slew of chills were slithering through my body.
I rocked forward against him, only half realizing what I was doing.
I said, “Roman is sending you after Marco?”
His hands gripped my thighs again before moving up to my ass. He cupped me there, and he helped move me with my already rocking motion. His hands were kneading my ass, slipping underneath my underwear. “No.”
I frowned. “But—”
His eyes found mine, tipping up. “Roman’s too new over here. He’s not strong enough to take on Estrada, but we’re going to buy time.”
“How?”
His eyes skimmed the room behind us, the hallway. “He’s sending us to go and take Estrada’s half-sister. It’s a stall tactic.”
How he was talking…
He kept on, “He’ll lose time and energy by looking for her. We’ll let him know she’s alive, but then she’ll need to be hidden from him.” He paused. “If that’s what she wants.”
I tipped my head back, touching his chin so he was looking into me and I asked through my eyes. He didn’t want them to know?
His gaze flared, growing fierce, then burning, and then hardening. His hand kept rocking me against him so I was grinding on him.
I saw my answer. He didn’t.
I gave him a small nod, knowing my own eyes softened, and he closed his, getting what he needed from me. His forehead went to my chest. I caught his head, my hand cradling his neck and I brought my other one around, sifting my fingers through his hair.