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)
“Oh, what kind of business?” Raven asked.
“The … painful kind. Want to come and see how the big boys do it?”
“Please, you don’t have anything on the club.”
****
Ugly Beast was going to fucking kill whoever was knocking at his door this late at night. He was pissed off. Angry.
Bella was finally sleeping through the night, and he’d gotten the chance to make love to his wife, and now, he was being interrupted from a wonderful night’s sleep.
Opening the door, he was even more pissed off.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Ugly Beast asked.
“It’s important, Umberto.”
He grabbed Sebastian around the throat and slammed him up against the wall. “Don’t ever fucking call me that, are we clear?”
“Clear.”
Ugly Beast had buried that name. He still couldn’t believe that Smokey had convinced Ava to name their son it. He knew his Prez was fucking with him.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
Sebastian Drago and Ugly Beast had a complicated history. Ugly Beast was one of the few boys Nico Garofalo sired. All of his male heirs were killed. Ugly Beast should have met the same fate, but for whatever reason, Drago hadn’t killed him. Instead, in secret, Sebastian had helped to raise him, and when the time came, Ugly Beast changed his identity and found a new life for himself.
There were a lot of speedbumps in the road for him to get to where he was now, but there was no point in remembering the past.
Ugly Beast hated the fact they had to deal with the mafia. His wife was mafia. It was the only connection he wanted. He loved his woman and wouldn’t give her up for anything. What had started out as an arranged marriage to help the club had turned into love.
He’d gotten lucky, but that didn’t mean he was sympathetic to any of them.
“I need you to come and get Raven,” Sebastian said.
He tensed up, still with his hand wrapped around Sebastian’s throat. “Raven’s helping Carlos with a threat to his life. Smokey doesn’t want anything to happen to him. You know how connected the club and the Santiago mafia is.” Just saying the words were bitter on his tongue.
“I have all the means of taking care of the men who wish to overthrow Carlos from power, but…” Drago stopped.
“Then take it to Carlos. Have him deal with it. Once the threat is done, Raven will come home, and you can go about making whatever little empire you want with whatever woman you have lined up.”
“Carlos is trying to get Raven pregnant. He has no intention of letting her come back to Fort Clover, or to the club. He and Smokey have the arrangement … for Ava.”
Ugly Beast had suspected it, but this was the first actual proof he had. Drago was many things, a known liar, too, but not like this. Drago lied to save and protect, but for him to come to Fort Clover, in the middle of the night, that meant business.
“Smokey is cleaning shop. Carlos was already aware of the club whores that had gone. Next is Raven, but they’re doing it … without her knowing. She believes she is there on Smokey’s orders.”
Ugly Beast let go of Sebastian’s throat and stepped back. “Why have you come to me with this?” Ugly Beast asked. He wasn’t President or VP.
“Because Raven’s place is here. It’s not at Carlos’s side.”
“We both know Carlos is obsessed with her. If he finds out you—”
Sebastian waved his hand. “I don’t care if he finds out.”
Ugly Beast frowned. “Why do you care? Is Raven a problem?”
Drago’s lips twitched.
“You know something about Raven?” Ugly Beast asked.
“I … Raven and I met before. She doesn’t know me, and I’m not sure she remembers me. Not well, but let’s just say I owe her,” Drago said.
Ugly Beast didn’t like this. “When?”
“Before Raven was part of your club.”
“If you knew of her and you were working for Garofalo, that means—” Ugly Beast stopped, not really sure exactly what the fuck was going on. “Was she … did she…”
“She wasn’t Garofalo’s,” Sebastian Drago said. “But she once was someone else’s.”
Ugly Beast stumbled back.
The club didn’t know much about Raven, only what she told them. He knew something went down between Raven and Smokey, and the next thing he knew, she was a patched-in member with an attitude and something to prove.
A gasp made him turn to see Abriana.
“You’re saying she was … a child … a trafficked child?” Abriana asked.
“I don’t know her story, but what I do know is that I was sent to a warehouse and Raven was there. She told me that it was a trap. They were trying to use me for blackmail. That they considered me a money pit to use. She got me out of there before they attacked. I don’t know what happened between then, but I never forgot that girl’s eyes. The blue of them, her raven hair. At first, when I saw her here, I thought I was just imagining things, but…”