Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 92474 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92474 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Maybe he was the same.
“You hear anything?” he asked as he applied the cream with a wince.
Punch a guy in the face until he broke his nose? No issue. Put antiseptic cream on open cuts? Yeah, he wasn’t so fond of that.
But he did it. Then he applied the ice pack to his right hand which was worse off than the left one.
“Nothing.”
After discovering that Alice had been feeding information to Patrick, Regent had gone on the warpath. He’d destroyed anything that was even related to Patrick McMahon. The destruction hadn’t ended until they’d discovered the slippery asshole had left town.
At the time, Regent had been furious. He’d wanted to chase him to the ends of the earth. Unfortunately, they’d had little to go on.
That was until a few weeks ago, when the rumors had started up. Whispers that Patrick was back in town.
“All smoke and mirrors,” Regent said. “All rumors. But no one is willing to say for sure that it’s him. Someone has to be helping him. I made sure there was nothing for him to return to,” Regent said grimly.
“Why come back? He has to know that we’ll be coming for him. I don’t like it.”
Regent grunted. “I want him found. I’ve got all our lieutenants and their soldiers on the lookout, ferreting out any sightings of the bastard. He’s going to pay for what he did.”
Not only had he placed Alice in their house and had her poison Regent in an effort to take over their territory, but he also had to be behind the FBI issuing a search warrant for their house.
In the months since the FBI raid, things had been mostly quiet. Regent had tightened his control over the city.
“We’ll find him. And if he’s working with someone, we’ll find them too.”
“They’re playing the long game. They’ve been too quiet. They should have made a move by now.”
And he knew that was pissing Regent off.
“Maybe you cleaned out the city too well,” Victor said. “Perhaps we should have tried to get someone to turn on him.”
Regent grunted. “Maybe. I wasn’t thinking that clearly.”
Yeah, Victor had noticed.
“You pulverized that guy tonight.” There was a note of question in Regent’s voice.
“I did.”
“There something I need to know?”
“Fucker’s a rapist.”
He saw Regent stiffen out of the corner of his eye. “What? He works for Santiago, doesn’t he?”
Santiago owned most of the strip clubs in New Orleans. Many of them had brothels out back with added extras. Not something that Regent was interested in getting into. He might be the leader of the largest criminal syndicate in New Orleans, something that would’ve made the old man proud, but he drew the line at getting into selling skin.
Sometimes Victor wondered if he even wanted to run any of it. If he wanted to be the criminal King of New Orleans.
But Regent had never confided in him whether this was something he wanted. Regent played his cards close to his chest. Almost as close as Victor did.
“Yep. Raped three hookers last week. He claimed it wasn’t rape.”
Fucker.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Regent asked. “You know I would’ve taken care of him.”
“You can’t go around murdering Santiago’s men.”
“I can when they’re fucking rapists,” Regent snapped.
“Well, now you don’t have to. Because I took care of it.”
“He’s still alive.”
Victor allowed himself a slight grin. “Not for long.”
There was a long moment of silence. “You’ve taken care of it?”
He tried not to let the words get their claws into him. He told him that Regent didn’t mean it to sound as though he doubted him.
As though he couldn’t complete a job. As though he couldn’t organize a fucking hit. That was child’s play for him. Their father might have spent the majority of his time teaching Regent how to run the organization, but he’d taught Victor his role.
“Yeah. I did.”
“Vic, I’m not doubting you, brother.”
Victor shrugged. “I’d get it if you were.”
“Victor, I have never fucking doubted you. Ever. You’ve always been there for me. You know how much I value you.”
“Let’s not get all mushy and shit, yeah? I’m not fucking hugging you.”
There was a beat of silence then Regent let out a small sigh. “Yeah. Right.”
Guilt swirled in his gut. He knew all his siblings wished they could get closer to him. That he’d open up to them. Let them in.
But that was another of his father’s lessons. To protect all of his siblings, and keep them from getting too dirty.
And if he let them in, let them get close, they might just find out how fucking filthy he’d had to get in the name of protecting them.
He’d done shit that he knew he could never do enough penance for. But if he could take care of a motherfucking rapist now and then, well, he thought that might somehow balance out the scales.