Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 94513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
He frowned as he scanned the area behind me before stepping back. “Uh, okay,” he said, moving so I could come inside. He looked around again before closing the door and locking it.
The main area—or living room, or kitchen, or whatever it was—smelled like weed, dirty feet, and moldy food. There were empty liquor bottles, ashtrays, a couple of used needles, clothing, boxes of pizza, and some fast-food bags littering the space. A guy sat up on the sofa, and I realized he wasn’t just shirtless, but naked too.
I snapped my gaze off him and turned to Nicco. Yep, not about to stay here. It would be healthier and safer to sleep on the street. I’d find a large box.
“Halo, Ronnie. Ronnie, this is Ares’s sister,” Nicco said, then walked toward the kitchen. “What’s up, Halo?” he asked as he jerked open the fridge. “Seems like it must be bad if you came here.”
No kidding. It was life or death. That was the only reason I would have come here. I wasn’t sure if the pungent smell I was breathing in was toxic or not.
Had he ever cleaned this place? I knew he’d moved in here a little over a year ago. Ares had been pumped about it.
“Has Ares called you since he left?” I asked him.
He shook his head and took a drink from a carton of orange juice. “No. Why?”
I could feel the other guy in the room looking at me, and it made me even more uncomfortable. I moved closer to the kitchen.
“I, uh …” I didn’t want to chance glancing at this Ronnie guy and seeing his junk again. One time was enough. “Can I talk to you in private?” I asked.
He leaned against the counter and cut his eyes back over my shoulder. “Give us a minute,” he told Ronnie. “And put on some fucking pants.”
I stood there with my arms crossed over my chest, staring at the floor since it was a safe location for my eyes, while the guy muttered a curse. His footsteps went down the hallway, and then a door slammed. I lifted my gaze back to Nicco, who was studying me.
“What’s up?”
“Iris left with the kids four days ago. Nick came home, took his things, and then left last night,” I told him.
His eyes widened. “Shit,” he said, setting the orange juice down.
“Yeah, that’s not why I’m here. It gets worse. Do you by any chance know why a man would want Ares dead?”
Nicco’s olive complexion paled. “Dead?” he asked as if he hadn’t heard me correctly, but his reaction said he had. In fact, there was something in his dark eyes that said he knew why.
“Yes. Dead. A man was in my bedroom last night and”—I pointed to the bandage on my neck—“held a blade to my throat and demanded I tell him where Ares is.”
“Fuck,” he hissed, straightening from his stance. “How did he get in? Did you hear him? What else did he say?”
“I think I left the door unlocked. I woke up terrified. I could feel someone in the room with me. He said I had twenty-four hours to tell him where Ares was or he would kill me and the rest of my family. I’m gonna tell him. Ares is safe, but me and the others? Not so much. But I need to know why and what he did. I’m trying to decide if this guy is going to kill me anyway. Should I be alone in that house tonight?”
Nicco ran a hand through his hair. “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he chanted as he walked over to the sofa and gripped the back of it. “Dammit!”
This wasn’t helping me. I needed answers.
“What did he do, Nicco?” I demanded.
Nicco shook his head. “I don’t know,” he lied.
“Yes, you do! I need to know. This man is coming back.”
Nicco let his head fall forward as he groaned. “Fucking hell, Ares.”
“My family left me, I won’t have anywhere to live in two days, and, oh, I just got fired this morning. So, you see, this is just one of many problems I seem to have. I don’t have time for you to panic or rant. I need to know what I am dealing with. Is it drugs? Did y’all get drugs from someone and not pay them?”
Nicco shook his head and turned to look at me. “It’s not drugs,” he said. “Ares stopped drugs back when he decided to enlist in the Army.”
I threw up my hands. “Then, what is it? Don’t tell me you don’t know because you do.”
He rubbed his face, looking at me like he’d rather jump off the balcony than tell me what my brother had done.
There was a knock on the door, and he looked relieved for the interruption.
“It’s probably Ronnie’s bitch, tracking him down. She’ll keep banging and start yelling if I don’t get it,” he said, walking over to the door and jerking it open.