Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 139088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 695(@200wpm)___ 556(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 695(@200wpm)___ 556(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Okay, that felt nice, even if it was a compliment on our vigilante investigation style from a mobster.
“But, and do not take this as an insult, this is above your skill level. Do not engage in this. Wait. Watch. Learn. Am I being clear?”
Raye and I both nodded because for sure he was being clear.
He turned to me. “Gypsy has been in touch. She wants news of her brother.”
Gypsy had been in touch with Dimitri, who she knew could get in touch with me.
I’d think on that later.
For now…
Uh…
Was she high?
Did she think I was going to give that to her?
“Gypsy can go fuck herself,” I retorted.
His eyes flared with interest and his lips tipped up.
Then his eyes got sexy and he whispered “Ah, to find my own angel who would go to such lengths to stand by her man.”
It was the perfect opening to tell him Knox wasn’t my man, but again, he got there before me.
“I assume he’s recovering.”
I said nothing.
He kept smiling. “She wants to get a message to him.”
“She has his number,” I replied.
“I don’t think this message can go via text.”
“People talk on phones, Dimitri,” I pointed out.
“What he’s saying is, she wants a sit-down,” Raye butted in.
Oh.
Well then.
“I’m not Knox’s go-between,” I told Dimitri. “If that woman wants to apologize to her brother for whatever went down a week ago, she needs to jump through whatever hoops Knox wants her to jump through. If she’s still bent on this path of recruiting him or punishing him, I’ll repeat, she can go fuck herself.”
“I don’t think I’ll share this,” Dimitri mused. “I think I’ll just say you’re upset about what happened and perhaps she should give it some time for all parties to find some calm.”
The time I’d find some calm with Gypsy would be the year of our Lord 3026.
“Yeah, go with that,” I replied.
He smiled at me like I was hilarious then looked to Raye, and that smile died a quick death.
“Call off your Angels,” he ordered.
I tensed because Raye wasn’t one to be ordered, especially by bad guys, even if they were bad guy allies.
“We’ll discuss it,” Raye returned.
He held her gaze long, nerve-wracking moments before he said, “You’ve been smart so far, Garrett. Don’t blow it.”
This, per moi, was good advice, and I was glad Dimitri was on my side in this. After I gave Raye a piece of my mind, then held a grudge for the appointed bestest-besties-having-a-disagreement twenty-four hours, it would help me talk all the girls down from getting involved in this business.
Or…as I’d just found out, further involved.
Dimitri pushed away from Raye’s car, inviting, “Come to my restaurant. We’ll fill you with good Russian food and vodka. On the house.”
The only Russian food I’d ever eaten was beef stroganoff—that dish was delish—and it was rare I said no to good vodka, so I wanted to take him up on this offer.
I didn’t do that in the mo’, since he approached Raye, brushed his cheek to hers, did the same to me, and I was mesmerized by his continental flair (not to mention, his spicy, sexy cologne).
It seemed you could take the man out of the motherland, but not the motherland out of the man.
Raye and I watched him walk to the sedan, get in the back seat, and it purred away.
When it was out of sight, I turned to her.
And again, someone got there before me.
“You need to focus on figuring things out with Knox,” she defended before I accused.
I still accused.
“You did Angel business without me.”
“One of ours got shot,” she returned. “And you’ve been distracted.”
I threw an arm toward where Dimitri’s car disappeared. “Even the underboss of the Phoenician Russian Mob knows we should not be in this. And if you’d waited to talk about it until I could tell you what I knew, you would know how dangerous it was, and you’d know we should not be in this.”
“It wasn’t a big deal. It was just some surveillance.”
“You tell me how you’d feel if I rallied the Angels to do something without you knowing it was happening.”
“Maybe somewhat how I felt when I found out my best friend had a relationship and fell in love with a guy, and she never mentioned word one to me.”
Hang on…
“I thought you said you were okay with that,” I shot back.
“I thought I was, in the moment. Then I realized, for over a year, you lied to me. To all of us. I mean, you and Knox spent the last year plus bickering, shaking that up regularly with avoiding each other, and every time we called you on it, you said nothing was happening. You were just friends. When that was a direct lie, right to our faces.”
I hadn’t liked doing that.
But stupidly, I’d promised Knox.
She wasn’t done.