Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 121755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
“They didn’t send anyone to follow him,” Joey shared. “Which Titus says proves how seriously they’re dumbfucks.”
I was no criminal mastermind, but I got this.
If I handed over a lot of money to some stranger I didn’t know solely on the understanding he liked the friend he met at Food City, I’d track that money to make sure he really did like his friend at Food City.
“He’s good to go, babies,” Titus said to Persia and Lotus.
“Okay, daddy,” Lotus purred.
“We’ll give you the heads-up when all is clear,” Luna reminded them.
Persia shoved Duane’s shoulder to get him moving to their car.
Duane didn’t move.
“We gotta get this done, Duane,” Raye reminded him.
“You all going all out on this—” Duane cut himself off and visibly swallowed hard.
We all waited.
“You need somethin’ from me, no porn, for the first two times you show,” he stated. Though, being Duane, he didn’t leave it there. “But still, bring cupcakes.”
With that, he walked with Persia and Lotus to their car.
“I think that’s as nice as he gets,” Joey guessed.
“We could show without porn, he wouldn’t care,” Luna decreed. “But we’ll bring it so he can save face.”
“Right,” Gemma whispered.
“Okay, here’s the news,” Titus said.
At his tone, we all focused on him.
“I asked around. This drop,”—he hefted the bag he was carrying—“is a quarter of a mil.”
Holy shit.
There was a quarter of a million dollars in that bag?
Whoa.
“Dex does not have that kind of cash,” Titus told us. “He leaned heavily into men who like their money paid back on time. They get grouchy when it isn’t. And their grouchy is delivered at the end of a baseball bat to your kneecap.”
Oh crap.
“This money disappears, and he doesn’t have any product to push to pay back what he borrowed, he’s in a world of hurt,” Titus continued. “You still in, knowing the extent of how this is gonna play out?”
Before anyone could even open their mouth, Joey spoke up.
“Amy Small involved her own son in a crew of bad guys, which ended with his ass in prison. Then she found Duane, set him up, played with his emotions and put him in a spot where some big player might disappear him. Dex was in on that. Dex picked Duane because he knows there’s a chance Duane isn’t going to make it out, and he wants Duane to go down, not one of his guys. So he knows there’s a chance Duane might pay the ultimate price simply for caring about somebody. Also, Dex knows he might lose that money. And he’s going to lose that money. So my vote is, he learns his lesson the hard way, if he has a job to do, he has to have the balls to do it himself.”
Joey, new to our crew, after this speech, got a full visual assessment from the veterans (and Titus).
It was all-around positive (obviously, that was a kickass speech!).
“That’s my vote too,” Gemma chimed in.
“Me too,” Harlow (who had decided to come to get her mind off Javi’s meeting tomorrow) agreed.
“Don’t look at me,” Jessie said when we all looked at her for her vote. “This Dex guy can go fuck himself.”
“For sure,” I said.
“I think we’re in,” Luna said.
“Right,” Titus said. “Time to introduce you to Dimitri.”
Dimitri?
Oh boy.
The restaurant we went to was one I’d never been to.
It was also one I’d never again go to.
Not because it was gross or anything. I didn’t see it. We went in the back off a shadowy alley.
It was just that it was obviously a front for the Russian mob. I’d never tried borsht, even though I wanted to give it a go, but I was going to steer clear.
We went through the kitchen, and the writing was on the wall when not anyone in that busy kitchen even glanced at a row of eight women and Titus being led through by a henchman.
The henchman knocked once on a door, nothing was heard inside, but he opened it anyway and jerked up his chin to Titus.
I took a deep breath as Titus led us in.
I thought it would be an office. Or a storeroom with easy-clean cement floors where mobsters could get up to all sorts of shenanigans and not have to worry about stain removal afterward.
It wasn’t either.
It was nearly as cool as Titus’s man cave, what with its red-topped, eight player poker table in the center, the plethora of couches and armchairs arranged around tables for maximum lounging-while-chatting-or-plotting-your-next-felony potential, a full wet bar and a wall packed with books that gave it a library air.
There was no dais nor killer portraits of the man in charge, certainly no fabulous, restored, gold, vintage Camaro (the showpiece of the man cave), and there was a little too much red, gold and ostentation for my preferences.
But the hot blond guy sitting at the poker table sure made up for the fall down on décor.