Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 66697 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 267(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66697 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 267(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
She didn’t ask anything further, and I knew I’d missed a golden opportunity to connect with her. The pain was still too sharp, though. I needed to really think about what to tell Tessa. Or if I even wanted to.
She drifted off soon after, curled in my lap, her body gone soft and trusting against mine. I watched her sleep and thought about what it meant to lose control of a room.
I’d spent my whole life making sure nothing ever owned me. I didn’t know what to do with the feelings inside of me, all of them centered directly around the slight young woman in my arms.
It scared the fucking hell out of me.
Chapter Six
Antonio
Once she’d slept peacefully for a good fifteen minutes, I carried Tessa to her bedroom and laid her across the mattress. She settled with only a sigh as I tucked the heavy blanket around her. Then I sat in the corner and watched her sleep like a fucking creeper.
She hadn’t moved since I tucked her in two hours before. I liked knowing I controlled her safety. As long as she stayed where I put her, I could make sure nothing could get to her.
I left her suite. No one in my employ would dare harm her, but to make sure Tessa felt safe, I locked her suite as I left. I wanted her to know her suite was her space and she controlled who entered.
Outside, the only light was the landing beacon at the edge of the helipad. I liked the isolation of the mountain property. No one could approach without being seen, and the only people with access to the helipad were mine. The helicopter waited with the blades winding slowly, muffled by the trees and the high walls forming a wide circumference around the pad. Kass’s crew stood at the ready, heads down, voices low. I liked that about Kass and his people. They didn’t posture. They just did the job they were paid to do and were loyal to me and my father because we were loyal to them.
Kass met me at the foot of the stairs. He handed me a black, legal-sized envelope. “Knight’s last brief,” he said. “He updates every hour or so, but this one’s fresh.”
“Anything new on the Pine alias?”
“Knight has two plausible candidates,” Kass said. “One was an insurance adjuster but he’s dead. The other, more likely, is a mercenary. Ran an operation in Africa for years before coming stateside. Uses the Pine alias on contract kills and skip traces.”
“The white van?”
Kass’s expression went blank, which meant he was withholding judgment. “We have it on camera at the Food Barn on Greer. Once at one a.m., another at three. Both times, the driver stays inside. The courier drops the package on the back seat, then leaves.”
“Knight’s running plates?”
“He’s already traced it to another shell, but the van’s a rental from a franchise upstate. Returned this morning. Already picked up for a different job, but we’re tracking it.”
I walked to the helicopter, feeling the ground vibrate under my feet as the rotors picked up speed. “And Rourke?”
Kass didn’t smile, but I saw the edge of it. “He’s in the city. My men picked him up on his morning run, no fuss.”
“He talkative?”
“He hasn’t shut up since we put him in the car.” Kass shrugged. “He wants to deal. Says he’ll give up Denton and Iron and half the city’s dirty secrets if we guarantee his safety.”
I got into the back of the helicopter and settled into my seat. Kass followed, taking the one across from me. I opened the envelope, scanning the summary. The alias of Pine matched with a series of burner phones, all routed through a data center in Montreal. The same network carried anonymous threats to judges, lawyers, and cops. I flipped to the next sheet. The courier was still in play, but his last drop matched the payout window on Quinn’s job. No face, but a habit of wearing blue nitrile gloves and never speaking above a whisper. The drop point was always the same. The Food Barn west service entrance, never more than five minutes. More than once the van left with no cargo, so five minutes appeared to be a hard limit.
The last note was about Rourke. Knight had done his usual deep dive. The man drank at three regular bars, had five ex-wives, and a gambling debt that would make a hedge fund manager sweat. Knight flagged Rourke’s biggest weakness as “fears Denton most.”
The helicopter banked south, and I watched the city come up through the break in the trees. The sun was just rising, but the city never really slept. I liked seeing it from above. It made the city feel manageable.
We landed on the roof of an empty office building on the edge of the West End. Kass and two men walked me through a steel door and down to the secure suite where Rourke waited.