Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 50820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 254(@200wpm)___ 203(@250wpm)___ 169(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 50820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 254(@200wpm)___ 203(@250wpm)___ 169(@300wpm)
“Maybe is better than no,” he replies, arching an eyebrow.
I open his weapon and clear the bullets before closing the space between us and offering it to him. He arches a brow and looks at me. “You really want me to have that?”
“If you think you can dig for bullets and kill me before I kill you, old man, go for it. And if you win that match up, you’re still stuck here until Kane arrives. And I think we both know what happens to you from there.”
He smirks, accepts the weapon, and shoves it in the rear of his pants.
I move to the panel by the door where my face is scanned, then my palm. Next comes my code, which I enter with caution, ensuring Roberto cannot see the numbers. When the door pops open, I motion him forward, but he holds his position. “No one is waiting in there to kill me, right?”
“Just me.” I smile, sticky sweet with promise.
He grunts and enters the apartment.
I’m right behind him, shutting the foyer room door, and sealing us inside our apartment, his son’s apartment, which in many a family would represent safety. In this one, it’s as bloody a promise as any, especially considering Kane is going to lose his mind over Roberto being here, but alas sometimes, almost always, a wife knows better. Roberto crosses the living room and halts on the opposite side, his back to me, our floor-to-ceiling windows in front of him, New York City stretched for miles in view, the city lights aglow. It’s a captivating vision, but I believe in his awe and interest with as much certainty as believing I’ll never stab anyone again.
None.
He’s looking for distance, I suspect, and at the same time, letting me know he understands his boundaries, even if he’d crossed them all to get here.
He’s saving himself.
Or trying.
I walk to the bar area at the entrance to the kitchen, grab one of Kane’s higher end bottles of booze, along with one glass. I don’t drink around anyone but Kane unless I’m planning to be stupid. I don’t plan to be stupid. Roberto’s still at the window when I sit down on the leather couch and place the bottle and glass on top of the coffee table. He seems to sense my attention, turning to walk my direction.
“My son has done well for himself,” he says, claiming the chair across from me.
I hold up the bottle and show it to him, his eyes lighting as he adds, “And he has good taste.”
“What the fuck ever,” I say, opening the bottle and filling his glass. “Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you before Kane gets here.”
He picks up his glass, sniffs the whiskey and downs the contents. “Damn, that’s good. It’s a sin to drink it so fast.”
“You excel at sin. And for the record, so do I.” Done with the chatter, I add, “Suck it up, buttercup. You’re here to die, as far as I’m concerned. Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you?”
“You’re direct, aren’t you, Lilah Love?”
“Mendez. I’m Lilah Mendez. The new blood in the family. And I’ll do whatever it takes to protect what’s mine. Start talking.”
“All right then, Lilah Mendez. There’s a necessary order to things and there are chosen people to keep that order. I’m one of those chosen.”
“If you’re an order keeper, I’m a nun, and I don’t know many nuns who love knife play the way I do.”
“Just make sure you hate the right people.”
“I don’t hate,” I correct. “I judge. And anyone who tells you my badge doesn’t work that way, is living in a make-believe world.”
“As you sit in judgement of me?”
“You judged me unworthy a long time ago,” I remind him. “Ironically, the minute Kane walks in that door, I’m the only way you stay alive.”
“Without the cartel, the Society would rule far more than any of us want them to rule.”
I laugh with disbelief. “And that’s your justification for running drugs and weapons, and beheading people?”
“Do you think Kane would be able to use the cartel to threaten Pocher if we sold cupcakes and lemonade?”
No denial of his crimes. At least he owns his demons. Still, I don’t like that this particular monster knows the way Kane uses the cartel to iron claw the Society, but then, he was never dead and always involved. “Why hide all those years?”
“I didn’t hide. I manipulated my circumstances to my and my son’s benefit. The Society had a hit out on me. I needed them to know even if I died, I lived on through my son.”
“Your brother was in control.”
“He was never in control. Kane had to fix every fuckup he made, of which there were many. But despite this, despite there being no doubt Kane was the real force inside the cartel, he has one foot in and one foot out and the Society knows it. Pocher knows it. Making your father a king, and taking Kane with him, is meant to castrate Kane, and you with him.”