Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 78237 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78237 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
“Some of the girls are still with paying customers.”
“Anyone you know?”
“No,” she sighs. “Newcomers.”
That makes things tricky, and I nod to Shades. “I’ll go upstairs and keep an eye on things.”
Just as Shades disappears from sight, a heavy boot kicks the front door open, and in walks three patched Iron Kings, wearing shit-eating grins. “Where the fuck is the money?”
Juniper pastes on a welcoming smile and heads over to the apparent leader of the group. “Are you boys here in search of a good time?”
“No bitch, we’re here for the money.” He grabs Juniper by the hair and pulls her over until they’re face to face. “Just give me the money the Reckless Souls left here, and nobody will get hurt.”
“Fucking mole,” Dix growls and steps forward. “You must be some kind of fucking idiot if you think we keep our money at a whorehouse.”
The fucker’s eyes go wide at the sight of Dix, and before any of us can act, his blade is buried in Juniper’s side. “Now you’re a dead bitch,” he spits in her face and tries to take off, but Juniper grabs him by the arm and pulls out her own blade, burying it deep in his chest.
“Holy shit, babe,” Dix grins. “I think I’m in love.” He goes to Juniper and helps her while the other two Iron Kings head toward the stairs.
I stop one of them with a punch to the throat. “Where do you assholes think you’re going?”
“Get the fuck out of my face,” Buzzcut growls behind me a second before the asshole sucker punches me. “We don’t answer to pussy-ass Reckless Souls.”
“Yeah, well, you hit like a bitch,” I tell him and send an uppercut to his jaw, sending him flying back where he hit his head on the steps. “Take a hit like a bitch, too.”
He scrambles to his feet and takes the stairs two at a time in an effort to get away from me. I smile and let him go, knowing that Shades is up there, ready to kick his ass.
I hear a gun click behind me, and I know the other fucker is back on his feet. “The fucking safe, or I’ll blow your brains out.”
“What safe?” I ask with a laugh.
A deafening gunshot sounds behind me, and I’m sure this is it for me, that I’m about to meet my maker before I have the chance to tell Maven how I feel about her. But then I hear the familiar thump of a body hitting the floor and turn around.
Dix is smiling on the other side of the dead body. “I got you, brother.”
“Thanks, Dix.” I look around, expecting more than three unknown Iron Kings and snort, “Nogales isn’t here, of course.”
“Fucking pussy,” Dix growls just as a shriek of pain erupts upstairs.
Without missing a beat, Dix and I take the stairs two at a time, stopping at the top of the landing to find two half-naked women clutching fresh stab wounds.
“Where is he?” I ask.
Both crying and panting women point to a room at the end of the hall. “Candi’s in there too,” one of them says before she lets out a pained breath.
I take off first, with Dix right behind me, and we find Candi cowering in the corner with a black eye and at least two visible stab wounds. I motion for her to come to me, and she scrambles on her hands and knees.
“I’ve got her,” Dix says and nods toward Shades. “Looks like he’s got things covered. Just pull him back after a while, yeah?”
I nod and turn as Shades is beating the fuck out of Buzzcut from earlier. The punk scrambles off the bed, leaving him trapped between a window and a bat-wielding Shades.
“You gonna run from me now, asshole? Tough enough to beat on a woman but not to go head-to-head with a man? Fucking pussy,” he growls and drops the bat down three, four, five times. “Where the fuck is Nogales?”
“I don’t know,” Buzzcut shouts and then cries out in pain when the bat lands across his ribcage.
“Wrong answer, motherfucker.” Shades lands two more hits. “Try again.” To add pressure, Shades raises the bat in a threatening gesture.
“I don’t fucking know, okay? He sent us here and others to Venus. That’s all I know.”
“Fuck,” I growl because that means the fucker is up to something else. The question is what?
Shades drops the bat before lifting it one final time and lowering it across the guy’s shins.
“Thanks for the info, asshole,” he says, smirking. The bat falls to the wooden floor with a clatter, and Shades bends over the kid and picks him up by the back of his jacket, panting as he tosses the kid out the window.
“Your services are no longer needed.
“Holy fuck, man.”
Shades turns back to me with a grin. “Too much? That last line felt like too much.”