Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 154882 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154882 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
“Okay, okay,” I muttered under my breath. “But no idea who’d want to do this to you?”
“No, I have ideas. I’ve got plenty, but none of them look like the guy you described. With a hit, I can’t hunt down the bastard who paid for it unless their hired dog tells me who they are. I’ve got nothing without the man only you saw.”
I didn’t stop myself brushing hair from his sweaty brow. Sunny was warm. Too warm.
“Kenzie can sketch him for you,” Sienna said. “She knows his face.”
“I’ll never forget it.”
“When we get our hands on paper and a pencil, you’ll have a drawing of your hit man. Next time, get to him before he gets to you,” she said. “We’re down to one tent now, and Kenzie hogs the blankets. Can’t afford to lose another one.”
Sunny didn’t reply.
“Sunny?” I called. “Sole?”
I lightly shook him. Our mobster was out cold, and good thing. The doc said he needed rest, and with pain and fever creeping up on him, it was much more peaceful in dreamland.
I drew Sienna to a corner of old cardboard boxes and made our bed for the night. We spoke softly while shaking out the critters that had the same idea.
“Someone’s been watching and waiting with a patience that freaks me out, Kenzie.”
“You said he was safe as long as he locks the doors from now on.”
“It’s not him I’m worried about,” she hissed. “You saw this guy, and he saw you. You’re a witness. Sunny returns home where he’s safe, meanwhile we’re as exposed as we’ve always been. What if he puts the word out about you? What if another bounty hits the streets? I see a long life for Sunny Bellisario, Kenzie. I don’t see one for you, except...” Sienna glanced over her shoulder.
“Except what?”
“Can’t tell you.”
I pulled a face. “Can’t tell me? Why?”
“It’s dangerous to know too much about your future.”
“Since when?” I cried. “Twenty years, and I haven’t gotten you to stop.”
“Since you’re super stubborn and have tried on more than one occasion to prove my visions wrong.” She popped a kiss on my cheek. “This one I’m going to let work itself out on its own.”
Sienna got the full force of my confusion as she stretched out and rested her head on her arm. She was lights out in minutes. I always envied that about her.
The dankest, most uncomfortable accommodations never got in the way of Sienna and her eight hours. I, on the other hand, couldn’t sleep—couldn’t settle into the calm I earned after the longest day.
Not while she’s out there.
I held out for an hour, possibly two. Time ran together for those not chained to it.
Sienna’s breaths were soft puffs on my shoulder. I raised her arm and stuck my wadded-up threadbare blanket in my place. Silently, I slipped out of the warehouse.
Surprisingly, I wasn’t concerned about Digger’s guys searching me out. I know what they got up to at night. I was the last thing on their mind.
I left the warehouses behind. My path lit with color.
The fairy lights dancing up the trees flicked on, showering the sidewalk with its cream and blueberry glow. A memory floated up at the sight, reminding me of mornings sitting on the porch with Sienna, munching on fruit cups topped with whipped cream and blueberries taking the place of sprinkles.
“The good stuff goes down easier with a side of the bad,” Dad would say as he squirted more cream.
How much good stuff versus bad stuff made up Sunny Bellisario, and what about him intrigued me to find out? Other than the dramatic way he literally crashed into my life?
I rounded a corner a block away from club street, casting a passing glance at the cars idling on the curb. Did he park there? Safe in the shadows of his tinted windows, watching Sunny run into the arms of his perfumed cohort? Was he sitting in one of those cars watching me?
I stopped in my tracks, a shiver rippled goose bumps on my arms. Without another thought, I returned to the top of the street and made for the noise, people, and clubs. The street was closed off this time of night to let drunken coeds stumble from club to club without getting mowed down. The perfect crowd to lose yourself, and a possible tail.
No one could know where I was going. No one could know why. This fact meant more than the risk of Sunny’s would-be killer finding me.
Damp bodies bumped me, leaving wet, glittery spots on my jacket. Songs I didn’t recognize poured out of every door, in every style there was. Hip-hop, techno, K-pop, R & B, pop, and swing music. The strobe and string lights were alive on Seventh Street, all pulsating to a different beat.
“Kenzie? Mackenzie Blaine, is that you?”