Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 102335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 512(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 512(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
Jade forces a smile, wincing. “Did they do that thing to you too?”
I grab a shot glass and shoot it back. Betty orders more when she notices I’m going to need it. “No. Because I won’t give him the satisfaction.”
“Well.” Jade turns, leaning her elbows on the bar. “Look, there’s plenty out here.”
“No.” I take another shot, wincing past the harsh sting. “It’s going to take more than a basic boy to piss off Wicked. I can’t be bothered.” My phone starts vibrating against my tits, and I reach in between, seeing Papa’s name flashing over the screen.
“Hello?” I block one ear and make my way through the crowd, ignoring the fact that no one has left the booth. Shoving through the swinging doors into the bathroom, I hear Papa’s voice come through.
“Ruby…” His voice sounds different. Strained. He never calls me by my birth name.
“What’s happened?”
He breathes out loudly. “You need to come home. Both of you.” My blood leaves my body and I pull the door open, taking the steps back to the bar and around to where the booth is, shoving through naked bodies. My fingers are tingling, mind spinning. Something isn’t right. I can feel it.
Just as I reach the booth, Wicked slides out, a scowl on his face. When he sees me, it’s gone.
“What’s wrong?”
“I—” He catches me with his arm when my knees weaken. “I think something bad has happened. We have to go home. Now.” Wicked’s eyes search mine before he takes my hand and our fingers intertwine as he moves us through the sea of bodies. I don’t see anything that he does after that. Not him telling everyone to meet us there, nothing. I don’t even fight when he’s shoving a helmet into my chest and starting his bike, because something is wrong. Whether it was Papa’s tone, or my instincts, I can feel it.
Wrapping my arms around Wicked’s body, I squeeze my eyes closed and inhale as the engine growls from beneath me, the wind running its rough fingers through my hair as he whips us forward. I clutch on to his torso, ignoring the memories of the last time I was on the back of a bike with him. What could have happened? Maybe it’s Val. He did disappear earlier on in the night, or Gio? Shit. I can’t think of any other possibilities.
When we pull down our street, police lights flash red and blue on the curbside, and news agencies have their cameras parked right outside the gate.
“What the fuck?”
Wicked’s bike idles between my thighs before he squeezes the throttle and drives us through the wired gates as they part open. There’s a dark car parked at the curb, with a police vehicle. Men are walking out of the house dressed in blue plastic coveralls and white booties. Before Wicked has parked the bike, I unlatch myself from around him and fling my leg over, flying to where Papa is standing, talking with a police officer.
“Papa!”
He turns just in time to catch me, and I see all of the blood soaked into his suit shirt, smudged on his face and sticking his hair up.
“Wolf—” The words barely leave my mouth before Papa shakes me, holding my upper arms.
“No, principessa, he is with Val—” He points to where our secondary carport is and my heart rate slows, my shoulders slacking when I see him curled into Val’s big body, and watch as Wicked makes his way to them both. My plan was to take it easy, introduce them slowly, but when Wolf’s dark blond head lifts off Val and his little arms fly out to Wicked instantly, a pang of guilt grips me around my throat. “But—”
I turn back to Papa, my mind no longer racing at speeds only a parent can understand. “What is it?”
“It’s your ma.”
I step backward, the floor shifting beneath my feet. “What?”
“We don’t know anything yet—”
He cuts me off, and before I can fall backward, an arm is holding me up and I can smell Wicked’s cologne all around me.
“Mama—” Wolf’s hand rests on my cheek, swiping my tears away.
I take his little chubby hand, pressing my lips to it and resting my forehead on his. “Mam—” I choke on the words. “I’ll be okay, baby.” I turn back to my father, who is now talking with his three right-hand men, his hands buried in his pockets as the police officer he was talking with moves back inside the house.
He notices me staring and makes his way back to us, now that cops are out of earshot. “You three should head to the penthouse.”
Shaking my head, I look back to the front door of our home, the once immaculate pearl white-washed door now smudged with crimson. I flinch away. “I want to see her.”
“No, Ruby.” Papa’s voice hardens before his hand comes to my cheek to gently bring my eyes up to his. Behind the hard exterior of Victor La Rosa, I see a broken husband. As if the years that he and Mama fought meant nothing, because now he has to walk this earth soulless. “Principessa, this wasn’t only a targeted hit. It was done for this—” Papa’s eyes shift over my shoulder for a second, meaning the media outside the gate. “This is the start of possibly the biggest war to ever become since the seventies. I need you all safe and away from here. “