Total pages in book: 227
Estimated words: 220940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1105(@200wpm)___ 884(@250wpm)___ 736(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 220940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1105(@200wpm)___ 884(@250wpm)___ 736(@300wpm)
“Oh, that feels good,” I murmur, dropping my head back. I’m not going in there until five minutes have passed. Or ten, just to be on the safe side. To be sure they’ve left for dinner and to discuss Allison’s status. So I start counting as I smoke my way through my Marlboro, one to sixty, ten times.
* * *
“Have you been stealing my fags, pumpkin? Wanna smoke like a big girl, do ya?” He shoves three cigarettes past my lips and lights each one. “Then smoke.” I cough my guts up, my eyes bursting with water, breathing hard. “Smoke, girl!” He picks them up off the floor and puts them back in my mouth.
“No, please.”
“Smoke!”
I yelp when he back-hands me across my cheek, all three cigarettes dropping to my bare feet. Two get shoved back past my lips. The other?
I grit my teeth, pain searing me.
But I manage to keep the cigarettes in my mouth.
* * *
I look at the end of my Marlboro. I didn’t want to smoke, I hadn’t been stealing his cigarettes, but I did from that day forward. So that if he forced cigarettes into my mouth again, I wouldn’t nearly choke to death. But the pain of being burned? My back twinges, as if reminding me. I pull on the end, taking the smoke deep into my lungs, focusing on counting.
On my sixth minute and second cigarette, I see a car turn into the alley off the main road, the headlights blinding, making me squint. It pulls over near a row of bins, the engine turns off, and the lights slowly fade to nothing. I push myself up to standing, taking one more drag of my cigarette and watching the car as I exhale, flicking the butt away. I only got to six minutes. I’ll take my chances. I turn toward the door.
“Hey, lady.”
“Shit!” I startle, flying around, finding a young guy, Spanish looking, his hands up, his eyes wide.
“Sorry, just wondered if I could bum a smoke.”
“Jesus, you made me jump.” I look down the alley toward the car as I rootle blindly through my bag for my packet. “Here.” I hand one over.
“Thanks.” He slips it between his lips. “Lighter?”
“Sure.” I give it to him, and he lights up, flicking his head to the door behind me. “It’s a strip joint, right?”
“That’s right.”
“You work here?”
“No.” I shake my head, eyes back on the car down the alley. No one’s gotten out. I feel uneasy.
He hands my lighter back. “Thanks,” I say, stuffing it inside my bag and turning toward the door.
“No, thank you.”
I frown, looking over my shoulder.
And come face to face with a flick knife.
18
BRAD
* * *
What a night. I sit with the men around the table, half listening, half not, my attention on the back of the club where Allison went to powder her nose and Pearl followed a few minutes after. Fuck’s sake, I don’t want to go for dinner with Allison, don’t even want to fuck her, whether that be at the Four Seasons or at the house. What I want to do is get Pearl in a room alone and find out who the fuck I killed in the men’s.
“I have an address for the Escalade,” Otto says. “Texting it to you.” All of our phones ding at the same time. “And if that’s me done for the night, I’ll be heading home. Again.”
“Not quite,” James says, stopping Otto halfway up to standing.
“Really?” Danny drones. “Because I’ve had it up to here today.” He indicates his head.
“What are you telling Rose about the body Higham’s reported?”
“I’m telling her nothing,” Danny says, giving everyone a moment of his threatening eyes. “And neither will anyone else.”
“Received loud and clear.” I return my eyes to the back of the club, seeing Allison appear. No Pearl. “That all?”
“Wouldn’t want to keep you from your date,” James muses. I give him an evil eye. I wish he and Beau would fuck off on their honeymoon, but I know that’s not happening anytime soon. And, really, I know we need all the deadly hands we can get right now. A shitstorm is brewing. Emotions are high. And the tension is off the charts.
“So, on the agenda,” I prompt, distracted.
“I need to meet Higham,” Danny says. “Otto, I need something on the bug on my old phone.”
“Trying, Danny. Really trying.”
“And find out where Luis is, what he’s doing, and who he’s seeing. Elsa Dove is connected to the Russians. I want to know if that’s Sandy or someone else.”
Where the fuck is Pearl?
“Brad!”
I jump, looking at Danny. “What?”
“I need you and James with me when I meet Higham.”
“Fine.” I rise from my chair. “I’ve got some shit to sort in the office before I go.” I leave the men and head past the bar. “Mason, you seen Pearl?”