Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 137310 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 687(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 458(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137310 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 687(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 458(@300wpm)
“And maybe you don’t know we got a vested interest in making sure Suzette survives whatever she’s facin’ and then gets on with a long and happy life.”
“I’d love to take your word on that, but I hope you don’t mind I’m not going to,” Scott returned.
“Can we meet?”
“We can, but it’ll be a waste of time. It’s not gonna change my mind.” Scott paused then said, “Listen, not sure how you got involved in this. Can’t say I’m upset that Suzette and Diana have someone looking out for them. But the only thing we’ve got to discuss is finding a way to first, get Suzette in a more secure situation, and second, get her to open up about things she might know.”
“So she wasn’t some random chick he picked up to destroy her life,” Hugger noted.
Scott blew out an audible breath but said nothing.
Hugger knew it was useless to keep pressing, but he did anyway. “Again, I’ll point out, we got the same goals here, Scott.”
Scott took a beat, two, and then shocked the shit out of him by saying, “Let’s meet.”
Hugger jumped on it. “Great. You call when and where, we’ll be there. It’ll be me, and likely a brother of mine, Eight.”
“How many of you are there?”
To build trust, Hugger gave it to him. “Four out-of-towners, for now. Three more coming in, ’cause we gotta cover Armitage now. And all of Aces.”
“So this is about Aces,” Scott muttered, sounding like he was connecting the dots, and he probably was.
“Partially. You seen Suzette. The minute we did, it became all about her. And Diana.”
“I hear you.”
“Where we meeting?”
Scott gave him a time and place.
“We’ll be there,” Hugger said.
He disconnected and tossed the phone to Diana.
“I’ll get dressed,” she said, already on the move to the door.
“You’re not coming.”
She stopped. “Yes, I am.”
“No, babe, you aren’t.”
“I so am. Is Big Petey coming over?”
“Di—”
“Harlan,” she snapped.
He shut up, because even saying it annoyed, he liked his name in her mouth.
“It totally sucks your name is as cool as you,” she griped.
He didn’t know anyone who thought his name was cool, even himself.
“Get Big Petey over here,” she bossed, then flounced into the apartment.
He released a sigh.
Then he bent his head to his phone and got down to business.
More torture, Diana on the back of his bike.
It was bad when she just had his belt loops, like now.
It killed when she was pressed to him, like yesterday.
She didn’t get his Club name was ironic. She didn’t get he didn’t like to be touched. She tugged his shirt, held his wrist, slapped his arm, and when she needed him, pressed tight.
And he didn’t give what he made others get to her. Further, it was almost painful the times he pulled away from her.
He also didn’t dive into why he didn’t do that nor why he felt the pain.
He’d called Rush the night before, but he wasn’t sure he was going to call Tack.
He wasn’t sure, because what he had to talk to Tack about—first—was not taking a trip down Tack’s memory road to how he won his old lady, Tyra.
There was something else.
Something huge.
A mountain between him and a life.
A mountain between him and his Club.
A mountain between him and whatever might happen with Diana.
A mountain he’d been eyeing since he joined Chaos, and he still didn’t know if he wanted to climb it.
His life was steady and predictable. He couldn’t say he was happy, he couldn’t even say he was content.
He could say he was breathing, he was safe, he didn’t have to worry about money, and he had people he respected around him.
And with the life he’d led up to Chaos, that was better than he expected he’d get.
Scaling that mountain to see what was on the other side? Something that could be an oasis. Or it could be a desert of shit.
In his experience, the most likely vista was a desert of shit.
So…yeah.
Climbing that mountain was all kinds of iffy.
But now was now.
Big Petey had been right, there was something more with Suzette.
She knew something.
Something that Babić was tweaked about even more than being convicted of a rape that included serious physical injury, which would give the man a minimum of twenty-five years, and a maximum of life.
So it was something big.
This meant it wasn’t only Pete they left back at Diana’s place. Muzzle was there too. Driver was back, and he’d brought another Aces brother, Gash. They were sitting outside the coffee joint, a table away from a couple of goons.
Babić wanted to make a statement?
They were gonna make one too.
He pulled into the parking lot of some public tennis courts off a road called Indian School. Eight was already there. And for some fucked up reason, even though it was a hundred and six degrees outside, two lunatics were playing tennis.