Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 110550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
I told her often she was lucky she didn’t have any, to which she responded I’d burn the world down if anything happened to a single one of them, and I wasn’t fooling anyone. I could move in on any city in the world and be running the place by the end of the week. According to her, I stayed in Cinco and contented myself with one borough because I loved my family.
I scoffed then as I did every time she said that. There was something deeply annoying about a mom who saw right through you. Anyone who wished their parents knew them better was an idiot.
Shaking myself out of my thoughts, I picked up my phone.
Bobby: Hey, you coming over tonight? I haven’t had a taste of that pussy for ages. That cunt is begging for me to give it what it needs.
“What’s up?” Bugsy asked.
“Bobby is texting for a hookup.”
“Which Bobby?” said Candace.
“Damned if I know.” I tossed my phone across the desk. I was booked in with Pedro that night anyway. Dear old Mom has one thing right: why settle for one guy when three, four, or more do the job just fine?
I blew out a gusty breath. “You’re right, guys. Can’t hurt to pick up Vito’s boys and see what they know. At the very least, it’ll give you all a chance to vent your frustrations.”
“Our frustrations? What about you?” asked Candace. “What will you be doing?”
I absentmindedly stroked the new wound on my shoulder. “I have something else to take care of, and you can’t help me with this,” I said when they opened their mouths. “I have to do this without the Cardinals.”
“You’re doing a lot without us all of a sudden.” I did not mistake the bitterness leaching into Bugsy’s tone. “Didn’t bother telling us where your safe houses were, so we could ride in and help you when shit went south. You’re moving back into the Fairfield, and now you’ve got some secret mission that can only be carried out by you. Since when don’t you trust us, FGH?”
“It’s not about trust. We’re dealing with a different kind of enemy this time around, ladies. Trackers in the buttons.” I snorted. “It’s genius in how simple it is. We’ve been running around searching for traitors and leaks for months, while the answer was literally right under our nose. To take down the Brotherhood, every move from here on has to be the right one. I can’t afford mistakes, and I don’t have time to argue about what I do. You either get that or you don’t.”
Silence smothered the room. It took a minute but, finally, they nodded—expressions hard.
“You can trust one thing,” I continued, picking up my phone again to text Pedro to have his pants off by the time I got there. “Everything I do is for Harlow and my Cardinals.
“Everything.”
MACKENZIE
“People always go for the guns or the knives in a fight. Fair enough, any banger that comes at you will too, but the most effective weapons you have are these.” Bane cradled my fists, making them tingle strangely. “My father taught me that. You can’t say the man is wrong since people have come at him with every weapon that exists over the years, and he’s taken down every single one with his bare hands.”
I swallowed through a tight throat, imagining being the cause with my hands around someone else’s. That’s hard to imagine now, but when the day comes that I need to defend Laurel, Sienna, Sunny, or my Merchants, I won’t hesitate.
I repeated that a few more times until I believed it. I asked for this training. I wouldn’t get nervous about it now.
“Do you fight with your bare hands?” I asked.
“I fight with every weapon at my disposal.” Bane swept his wall of guns, knives, and antique daggers. “They’re only so effective because I can win without them. Someone who relies on their gun panics when it’s taken from them. It’s that panic and hesitation that kills them. Understand?”
I nodded. Everything Bane was saying made perfect sense. It was putting his words into action that would be the hard part.
“Do you have a preference?” he asked.
Bane was delicious that early morning, wearing loose drawstring pants and nothing else. His chest was bare for me, revealing the faint collection of scars gracing his pecs, back, and side. For some reason, they didn’t fill me with pity. All those scars told a story, and I’d spend the rest of my life hearing every tale that made Bane who he is. They couldn’t all be as sad as the one that made him give up on love.
“A gun w-would be better, right?” I hoped he didn’t notice my voice shake. “Stop attackers before they even get close.”
“A gun is good as long as you have the aim to go with it. Ever fired one before?”