Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 58090 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 290(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 194(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58090 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 290(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 194(@300wpm)
And I knew just where to start the hunt.
“Come on, Parkston. Let’s go kick that son of a bitch’s ass.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Tori
There was no point in bitching about the way things had turned out. It wouldn’t change anything. But in the unbearable silence, I found myself saying, “I thought I finally had a shot.”
Paige moved behind me, craning around as far as she could. “What do you mean?”
“I thought I was finally going to have a normal life.” A dry laugh slipped from my lips. “You know Eric?”
“Richie’s Eric?”
I bristled. “No! He’s not with that fucker Dalton.”
“Oh?”
“Sorry,” I hung my head. “I just mean…he’s not on Dalton’s side in any of this.”
I chewed on the corner of my lip, wondering how much I should say. I supposed it didn’t matter much anymore. Paige and I would both likely be dead by morning. Who would she tell?
“We knew each other before he came to the club,” I whispered. My throat swelled as tears pricked at the corners of my eyes, thinking of the night Bennett and I first met and every pinch-me-I-must-be-dreaming night that followed. He was my first love. My first heartbreak. And I’d probably never see him again.
Without windows, phones, or a clock on the wall, it was impossible to say how much of it we had left, but it felt like it had already been hours, and Richie had only promised one.
“We met in Vegas. That’s where I’m really from.”
“I thought you were from some small town. Down south, right?”
“Nope. That was all a lie.”
“Why?” Paige asked though she didn’t sound angry about my confession.
I heaved a sigh and dropped my head back, stretching the kinks in my neck. “That’s a long story.”
“I would say we had time, but sadly, I don’t think that’s true.”
“Yeah. If we make it out of here, I’ll tell you the whole thing sometime over a couple of drinks.”
“Deal.”
We fell into silence for a long while. Paige was the first to break it, “Reed always has his phone on him. We argue about it all the time. Well, not argue, but squabble, I guess. He never takes a break from it. I don’t understand why this is taking so long…”
“He’s dodging Richie’s calls.”
Paige strained in her seat. “What? Why?”
“I don’t know, but when I was in the office before you got there, I told him Richie wanted to see him in the red room. Reed told me to tell Richie he’d already left and to call his cell if it was an emergency. It was pretty obvious he was done dealing with him. Now I guess I know why.”
“Still,” Paige started. “If he got the voicemail, he’d know this wasn’t a complaint about the shape of the ice cubes or something stupid!”
“Do you think he’ll really sign over the club?”
“For me? Us? Yes. No question.” Paige’s automatic answer and strong voice inspired a burst of hope in my chest. Maybe Reed would make the deadline, send the papers, and Richie would let us walk away. But the hope extinguished quickly. The stakes were too high.
Dalton wasn’t going to just wave us out the back door, deed to the club in hand, and pretend all this was just a casual business deal. He’d already crossed too many lines. He couldn’t release us.
“I don’t understand why he even wants the club,” I muttered.
“I don’t either. Suppose he’s really the head man for the Sanderson syndicate like he claims. In that case, they probably want to use it as a base for information, scuzzy deals, and a lot of dark shit that we don’t even want to know about. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were tangled up in some form of human trafficking. After all, before Reed and I got the club, that’s what it had been a front for. It has a sordid history, and we busted our asses to make it a reputable place again.”
“I’m sorry, Paige.”
Both of our dreams were being squelched all at the same time—on the same night.
“So you were going to run off with Eric and leave us?” Paige asked, a hint of humor warming her voice.
I smiled. “Something like that. He wanted to get a house and a dog and be together—a family. I’ve never had that before. Like what you and Reed have together.”
“Hmm. You’ll have that, Avery. I’m not going down without a hell of a fight,” Paige replied, her tone steely now.
My smile slipped away. “Tori, actually.”
“What?”
“My name’s Tori.”
“What do you—”
“Like I said, it’s a long story. I just wanted you to know the truth.”
Before Paige could respond, the metal door clanged open, and we both went ramrod straight, our shoulders thrust back, every muscle tensed as Richie strutted into the room, flanked as always by his two muscle-bound guards. He didn’t look happy.
“Your husband has some nerve, dodging my calls,” he spat out, glaring at Paige. “Looks like we need to up the ante a little.”