Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 126840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
I took the call. “Hey.”
“Okay, wild but get this,” she began. “I was in the middle of texting you back when Bree called.”
I sat straighter and felt Core come alert.
“Okay,” I said.
“At first it was weird, then she started crying, and after that she told me she thinks Christos stole from her.”
My gaze flew to Core’s.
This time, his brows shifted up.
“Stole what?”
And the way they drew back down, mm-hmm.
That was definitely scary.
“She was missing some pearl earrings her grandma gave her, but she thought she just misplaced them, and she’d eventually find them. She just hasn’t had the time to go searching. But this morning, she couldn’t find the diamond pendant her mom and dad gave her when she graduated. It means a lot and it’s worth a lot, so she says she’d never misplace it. When she takes it off, she puts it on her necklace tree, no exceptions. She wore it last night, and distinctly remembers putting it on the tree before she brushed her teeth. It was gone this morning, and the only person who’s been in her place outside her is him, including last night, when he spent the night. He left before her and kissed her goodbye, and she knows he took that necklace with him.”
“Holy crap,” I breathed.
“So she says she believes us now. He’s a grifter, and she’s both really hurt and really ticked.”
“Well, I guess we don’t have to sit down with her and Core.”
Core tipped his head to the side.
The waitress came with our food.
“She wants us to come over tonight,” Marcy informed me.
“Okay, I don’t have plans. I can be there.”
“Me too. I need to text Kyra.”
“Cool.”
“Her grandma died last year, remember?”
I had my phone between my shoulder and ear and was unrolling my napkin from my cutlery when this stopped me dead.
“She tore apart her place this morning after she saw the necklace was gone,” Marcy went on. “Those pearls aren’t anywhere to be found. Her grandma gave her those for her sixteenth birthday. They were pearl studs, so maybe they wouldn’t pay off her student loans. But they’d been given to her by her dead grandma.”
I was feeling sick.
“Has she talked with Christos yet?” I queried.
“Nope.”
“Can you call her back? Tell her not to?”
“I can, but why would I do that?”
“Because we have to figure out how to get those back.”
“You don’t think the Greek Bumble Syndicate hasn’t already pawned them?”
Good point.
“Right. I just don’t…let me talk to Core. Fill him in. I just don’t think it’s strategic to let him know she has his number yet.”
“Talk to Core?” she asked leadingly.
“I’ll be in touch.”
“Wait!”
I disconnected.
“Spill,” Core ordered before I could even put the phone down.
I gave him the skinny.
When I was done, he forked some burrito in his mouth, chewed, swallowed and looked at me.
“Marcy’s right, she’s gotta kiss that stuff goodbye.”
“This guy can’t get away with this shit,” I snapped.
“He won’t.”
His tone struck me.
“What?”
“He won’t.”
“Are you saying she should call the cops?”
“No.”
I studied him.
Then I admitted, “Okay, I’m not following.”
“Eat your lunch.”
And again with the boss.
“Core,” I bit out.
He gave me a gentle look. “Just eat your lunch, baby, go about your day, give support to your friend tonight, and don’t worry about it.”
I wished he wouldn’t call me baby.
It sounded nice.
But it wasn’t real.
“I can’t worry about something I don’t know what it is.”
“There you go,” he replied.
I glared at him.
He winked at me.
And then he resumed eating.
6
SUCKER
Core
The call came as he was walking from his bike to the clubhouse.
He pulled his phone out of his back pocket and saw her picture on the screen with Moynihan over it.
At lunch, when he’d tossed her his cell and told her to program herself in, he’d taken hers and done the same thing.
When he got his back, he’d snapped a photo of her after she told him not to, which meant he caught her with a grumpy, scrunchy face.
It was fucking adorable.
“Yo, Catwoman.”
“Ohmigod, can you be more annoying?” she asked.
He was grinning when he opened the door and entered the clubhouse.
A few years ago, when the club was in turmoil, and before, when they were wannabe badasses and fucking shit up, their homebase wasn’t all that much to brag about.
Now, after they bought their first dispensary as a crew (then bought the next four), cleaned up a variety of messes and kept the spoils, it was pimp.
Two pool tables. Jukebox. Kickass bar. Leather furniture that was smooth as a sweet piece’s ass.
Each brother didn’t have a private room, like Chaos’s clubhouse (this was something they were going to see to with a huge-ass addition when Rainman said they had enough money to do it and do it right), so if a party turned into a private party, you had to stay sober enough to drive the bitch to your house, or hers.