Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 104329 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 522(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 348(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104329 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 522(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 348(@300wpm)
She noticed he was alone, which was another odd situation. Carlos always had that Drago dude hanging around him. She couldn’t help but wonder why Drago was so familiar to her.
“Raven,” Carlos said.
Smokey was still dealing with him, and until she was told otherwise, she knew she had to be polite.
“Carlos,” she said.
“I see a small booth at the back.”
“It’s reserved.” She had checked it out when she walked inside. When she wasn’t eating with the club, she liked privacy. The main counter had to do.
“I have it reserved,” Carlos said.
“Of course you do.” Raven looked up. “Go and eat.”
“You’re getting ready to order. I insist we share the booth.”
“Don’t you have your little boyfriend joining you?”
Carlos chuckled. “Drago is in the city taking care of some business. I am here alone.”
“On a vacation?”
“In a way.”
She wasn’t good at making small talk.
“Or I can sit here,” Carlos said.
People had already started to take notice of him.
There were always rumors about the club, and Raven didn’t want people openly pointing.
Dropping the menu, she slid off the stool and headed toward the reserved booth. It was nice, a little too romantic for her taste, but at least she didn’t have to deal with the whispering and pointing.
She didn’t allow her back to be to the room.
Carlos slid in opposite her. “You have taken my spot.”
“My town. I get to be the lookout,” she said.
“Don’t you ever relax?” Carlos asked.
Raven stared at him and frowned. Resting her elbows on the table, she glared at him. “Do you even know what it takes to run the little mafia empire you’re a part of?” Raven asked.
“I’m very much aware.”
“And you think there is time to relax?”
“Oh, Raven, I am very much aware of my entire surroundings. I have reflections all around me, and in the corner, I have the perfect vantage point. I don’t need to sit looking at the room. I can see any threat.”
Raven sat back and stared at him. “Doesn’t mean you can relax.”
“Oh, but it does,” Carlos said. “Also, it helps that I know how to gut a man. Always comes in handy.”
She couldn’t help but smile, and to hide it, she grabbed the menu and lifted it.
“I saw it.”
“Shut up.”
“How are you?” Carlos asked.
Raven lowered the menu and stared at him. “Fine.”
“No more bruising or in need of stitches?”
It had been Carlos to lift her up, to take her to the hospital after the beating she took from Creed. She wished she could forget it, but it was a memory that constantly returned.
There had been a lot of damage, but Raven hadn’t minded. It took her some time to heal from all of the bruises, but Ava had been safe. Ava was important. Not her. Never her.
“I’m fine.”
“You took quite a beating.”
“You know this is not the kind of shop talk to have over food.”
“So we’re having shop talk?” he asked.
“I do not understand you.”
Carlos chuckled. “Not many people do.”
The waitress came to their table, and before Carlos could speak, Raven ordered her burger and fries with extra sauce, and to bring a salad along with it.
She was that hungry.
After the disaster of her sandwich last night, she needed to make up for it.
“You’ve lost weight,” Carlos said.
Raven stared at him. Starving herself would help that. She hadn’t done it on purpose.
“You’re not very good at this, are you?” Raven asked. “Do you even take a woman out to dinner?”
“No. I never need to. They know that when I want to fuck them, they come to me.”
“Is that right, and it works?”
“All the time.”
“And afterward, do you pay?”
“No,” Carlos said. “I never pay for sex.”
“Could have fooled me.” Carlos was a good-looking man, but he was also an asshole. Raven sat back in the booth and looked out at the diners. There were a few people pointing and looking in their general direction, and that was to be expected, kind of.
“Are you expecting someone?” Carlos asked.
“No.”
She was very much aware of her cell phone in her pocket. When would the time come that Smokey called a meeting to out her? She should just come right out and ask him, but she was a little afraid. What if he asked her to leave? The Hell’s Bastards and Fort Clover were her home. It was the only place she had ever felt truly safe.
“Have you ever been to the city?” Carlos asked.
She turned her attention back to Carlos. “You know I have.”
“I have upset Sebastian,” Carlos said, surprising her.
“You have?”
“Yes, you see, back home, I am expected to…”
“What?” Raven asked.
“Pick a wife.”
“Oh, yeah, Abriana said something like that. You need to have a wife, and get an heir, and all of that. Something to do with a power play, right?”
“Yes,” Carlos said. “I forgot that you have Abriana as a friend and she was part of the … our world.”