Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 56680 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56680 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
As I start mixing the paint, she clicks her fingers together. “I’ve got an idea. Give me a second, and please, if anybody’s listening, let my little bundle of joy not cry for five minutes.”
She leaves the room, acting all mysterious. I keep up with the mixing, and then my phone vibrates. I quickly set everything down and snatch it from my pocket. It’s our phone, our connection.
Sorry, Mia. I’m busy, but maybe you’re right.
Meaning maybe he could find something to commit himself to? Like me, a future, like a life? I try to push all that down, not letting myself think about it, but it’s like saying pink taxi and then not instantly seeing a pink taxi.
“Come on, boy,” Lexi says, jolting me from my thoughts.
She’s leading Shadow into the room, her hand resting on his head as he walks at her side. He looks up at her with an expression that says, Fine, I’ll humor you. “Sit there. Good boy, Shadow.”
He sits, looking over at me, almost like he knows what we’re doing.
I thought we said we weren’t about that long-term life?
The message fails to send, almost like he’s lost service. A probably irrational note thrums through me, telling me something’s wrong. Something has happened. I push that thought away. People lose service sometimes.
“Mia?” Lexi says, standing beside Shadow, her hand absentmindedly stroking over his head.
“Let’s get started,” I say, smiling, because I can’t spend the rest of my life miserable. Or in a constant state of expectation, a flight-or-fight panic. Sometimes, I have to take control. There’s no better way than art and creating.
When David’s cry crackles over the baby monitor, Lexi smiles. That’s her first response. I can tell she’s thinking the same thing on some level. She’s created something, too, and it’s quieted her storm a lot.
“Shadow will stay,” Lexi says, walking for the door.
“I know he will,” I say, grinning at him.
His eyes gleam as he watches me.
CHAPTER 22
Dante
Ritchie sits across the small table from me. He must know this is nowhere good for him. He was tied up in the trunk as I went around the home. Now, I’ve driven him out to a small, secret storage shed outside the city.
“The nearby river leads right into one of the strongest currents on the East Coast.”
He doesn’t need me to explain any more than that. He understands that I’m telling him his body would disappear.
“Would you prefer to die or to go to prison?” I ask him, and he freezes up like a little coward.
However, in the past few minutes, there have been flickers in how he looks at me, hints that he might snap out of this and start fighting back. He was very drunk when I picked him up. He seems to be sobering up, but maybe he’s too shit-scared, even when sober.
“Prison,” he snaps. “It’s not so bad if a man’s got connections. Better than… than that, anyway.”
“Then we’re going to make a deal,” I tell him, standing up and walking to the edge of the room. I keep my eyes on him the whole time. The door’s closer to him now, and I almost want him to try to run. I kneel and move some floorboards aside.
Revealing the hatch, I pull it open. “This is what I call a disaster hatch,” I tell him. “It’s cramped, but you’ve got everything you need down there. There are even basic toilet facilities.”
Ritchie stares wide-eyed at the hatch, the entrance glowing pale green from long-life bulbs. “You did something evil,” I tell him. “You’ve trafficked people. You’ve threatened children, and these are just the things I know about. I’m being nice to you.” My voice shivers as the rage tries to explode, and Ritchie flinches like I’ve just hit him. “You’re going to wait in here, and when it’s time, you’re going to help me catch the real monster. Understand?”
Ritchie stands up, summoning all his little weasel courage. He’s got this look on his face like he’s thinking, this is my moment. He clenches his fists. “No, Dante,” he tells me. “Fuck no. I’ve let this go on long enough. You’re just—” He flinches again when I take a small step forward. “An enforcer. You can’t do this.”
“You threatened my woman,” I growl, “before she was old enough to defend herself. I can do any damn thing I want.”
I walk right up to him. He stares at me, his eyes wider the closer I get, but he doesn’t do anything. He doesn’t swing. He lets me grab him by the lapel and lead him toward the hatch.
Tony is the one who really matters. He’s the one I’m going to feed into the ocean.
I get home at midnight. I’ve got two texts from Mia. The first text is, I thought we weren’t about that long-term life?