Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 80471 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80471 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
“Good. Because I don’t,” I admitted.
“But you know how to kick ass, which is, arguably, better,” he said, holding out a mug toward me.
“How about you teach me home maintenance shit, and I teach you to fight,” I offered.
“Deal,” he agreed, turning to put a cup of sugar in his mug before drinking.
The food showed up, and we ate over another episode of Buffy before he had to dip into his apartment to get a change of clothes. It was quiet for a change, his parents worn out from fighting finally.
I got myself together by the time he came back, and we walked out together.
“Aren’t you supposed to wait for Dav?” he asked, shooting me a knowing glance.
“I’m not supposed to wait for anyone,” I told him. “We’re both equals in the organization. I’ve been going out on my own since I was nineteen.”
“But—“ he objected.
“I’m fine,” I insisted, waving him off as he ducked down the street for the high school as I kept moving.
The thing was, I actually wanted to wait for Dav.
That was exactly why I didn’t.
I didn’t want to start getting dependent on someone else because I was doubting myself. That wasn’t how a capo acted. Sure, we had crews. We had men and women to rely on when a job was too big. But I didn’t need someone hanging over my shoulder watching me do my job.
So I began working on the mental list I’d started as I got myself ready for the day. All the names of the people who I did jobs with, who might be pissed at me.
And I… started dropping in for unexpected visits.
I figured the best way to truly gauge if someone was holding a grudge was to show up unexpectedly and see their knee-jerk reactions.
The first two people I visited had just been perplexed, not understanding why they were seeing me again when things had been squared away for so long.
The third snorted at me as I walked in, shaking his head. “Here to take the actual food out of my mouth?” he’d asked. “That’s about all I got left.”
But that was all bruised pride and the frustrations that came with life beating you down.
Not something he’d hire people to attack me about. He couldn’t even afford it if he wanted to.
“You seen this guy around?” I asked them each, holding out my phone to show the picture of Chet.
But no one had.
I mean, this was Brooklyn. It wasn’t exactly a rural area where new faces would stick out like sore thumbs. And there was no way this guy was a local criminal, because I was pretty sure either Dav’s crew, my crew, or Drake’s crew would have known about it.
He wasn’t from this area.
Which wasn’t helping.
My phone vibrated in my pocket after a few hours, and I pretended to ignore the way my heart trilled at seeing Dav’s name on the screen.
You’re a pain in my ass, Cin.
I caught myself smiling down at my phone, and forced my lips into a straight line as I shot a text back.
I’ll let you know if I need backup.
Sure you will, he shot back. Then, Don’t forget we have a meeting with Renzo tonight.
Crap.
Yeah.
That shit with the butcher shop.
Like I needed something else to worry about.
Though, Renzo wasn’t an alarmist kind of boss. So if he was calling us in, this was probably something big. Maybe even that shit going down with the Russians that he was siccing Elian on.
I scrolled through my texts, finding the one from Renzo, then making a mental note to head in that direction around that time. Which still left me the bulk of the day to keep running down leads.
“And what about your wife?” I asked yet another guy on my list, six pints deep in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday.
“What about her?” he asked.
“She pissed at me?” I asked as he reached his hand into the bowl of nuts that likely had fifty unwashed hands in there per shift.
“Why would she be? You weren’t the chick I was fucking instead of her.”
“You’re real charming, Joe,” I said, rolling my eyes at him.
“She had a good snatch too,” he said, looking down at his beer. “Even after the kids. Dunno why I did that.”
In general, I thought I liked working in a male-dominated profession. I fit in better with their detachment and coldness. But, fuck, every once in a while, one of these idiots made me wish I was a hairdresser or some girly shit like that.
I was about to walk out when Joe called back to me. “Can I see that picture again?” he asked. “Something’s bothering me,” he added as he finished off his beer.
With a small surge of hope after another long day of nothing at all, I walked back, holding out my phone.