Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 77579 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77579 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Then put it away when I hadn’t come out.
Damn him for being thoughtful.
Though, I tried to tell myself, it was a sad state of the world when remembering to feed someone was considered ‘thoughtful.’
Coffee in hand, I made my way upstairs, planning to steal yet another shirt to wear, though I would be pairing it with the five-hundred-dollar jeans that had been included with all the other clothing. The shirts all felt too nice to just be wearing while bumming around the house.
I tried to brace myself for the smell of him all around his closet, but it still felt like a kick right to my libido as I moved inside and smelled that spicy scent that was all his own.
I stole three shirts, wondering what the hell he did about laundry, because even with his impressive clothing collection, he would run out of t-shirts for me to borrow eventually.
It wasn’t until I was on my way out of his closet that something caught my eye.
Well, not something.
A whole stack of somethings.
Little rectangular boxes.
Curious, I made my way over, finding not one or two, but eight smart phone boxes just sitting there.
I knew enough about criminals to know they used a lot of burner phones. But they were always depicted as those cheap ones you could buy and put minutes on and stuff like that. Not actual thousand-plus-dollar smartphones.
I fought with my conscience for all of ten seconds before I grabbed a box and took it downstairs with me.
Obviously, they weren’t hooked up to any kind of service, but after doing some fiddling, I managed to get it hooked up to a phone number via my email service, and was able to call the hospital, chatting with my grandfather for upward of an hour, finding myself glad that he was finally starting to sound a little better, more like himself. Hell, maybe even better than he had been before, since he was getting treatment for those issues he didn’t even know he was dealing with.
I managed to get to talk to the doctor as well, feeling my heart swell a little as I was told he would be able to move to the step-down facility in another three or so days, depending on how well he continued to do.
It wasn’t until I hung up that I realized that him being moved would mean I was going to have to talk to Cosimo.
I would get there.
I had to get there.
I just needed another day or two to really put the whole situation in its place, to stop feeling so raw and exposed about it.
Then everything was going to be fine.
Because, Lord knew, Cosimo wasn’t going to be making a big deal about us having had sex.
Or so I thought.
Until two nights later.
When my locked door flew open.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Cosimo
“Cos, you listening?” Gav asked, voice raised enough to make me think he’d already asked me something else, and I hadn’t responded.
Because, no. No, I hadn’t been listening.
I couldn’t seem to make my mind concentrate on anything, actually.
Or, more precisely, anything other than Halle.
And why she’d boarded herself up in her room every night.
Clearly, she was out during the day. The guards said they’d seen and heard her. She ate the breakfast and lunch delivered. She even ate the dinner I ordered the night before then put away when she hadn’t come out to eat it.
The urge I had to go home early was strong. And that fact was precisely why I couldn’t do it.
I didn’t know what the hell was wrong with me.
I had no frame of reference for this shit.
“No,” I admitted, exhaling hard, and pulling my cup of coffee closer across Lorenzo’s dining room table. He was out, so we’d started without him.
Gav’s brow lifted at that, but he said nothing about it. “I said that the Serbian crew, from what I can tell, doesn’t give a fuck about these brothers. The brothers, though, seem desperate to get in their good graces. Trying to do errands and shit for them. It’s embarrassing, honestly.”
“And?” I asked, sensing he had something else to say.
Gav paused as the sound of the front door opened, and footsteps moved in.
“I wonder how happy the Serbians would be if they found out these guys who want in their organization are fucking with the Family,” Gav said.
It was true we didn’t have anything to do with that particular crew. No love nor animosity. Just indifference.
But it was impossible to know what their feelings about us were. Did they fear and respect us? Did they want to take what was rightfully ours?
“What are you thinking?” I asked.
“I’m thinking there is someone who does know the Serbians,” Gav said.
“The problem being that Renzo isn’t going to help us until I agree to his terms,” Lorenzo said, moving into the dining room.