Total pages in book: 180
Estimated words: 176012 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 880(@200wpm)___ 704(@250wpm)___ 587(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 176012 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 880(@200wpm)___ 704(@250wpm)___ 587(@300wpm)
Emerging from the short tunnel into the club, I’m taken back to my time in college. The crisp perfume of carpet shampoo and air freshener mixed with the stench of cigarettes.
The boom of the bass and the music drowning out my thoughts.
The coolness of the air, like being on an empty trail in the forest.
I feel that same assault on the senses that happened just like the only other time I’ve been here. That sudden darkness stealing you away from the light.
I didn’t think this place was open this early in the morning. They could have a Late Hour Liquor License, but that would mean Hugo and his boys have been drinking all night, not to mention whatever else they might be on.
Fuck it.
I find him off to the right of the stage, in a dark alcove, seated at a booth. Two girls dance on stage, but they’re barely putting on a show. They look exhausted, dragging their platform stilettos across the glossy floor. A man sits alone at a table, and a couple sits together, whispering. There’s a bartender, and a server moves across the floor. No one else.
I motion for Farrow to stand next to the booth where I can see him, and grab a chair, planting it in front of Hugo’s table. I clutch my phone in my hand as I sit. “My family is tracking me, so behave, okay?” I tell Hugo.
He laughs under his breath.
“I find that we’re at an impasse,” I tell him. “I can’t implicate you without you implicating me. And I can’t offer you anything better.”
His arms hang over the back of the half-circle booth as he blows out smoke. There’s a cut on his head just visible behind a lock of hair and a bruise on his cheek. At least no one was killed in the accident.
“But I can replace you,” I say.
“With yourself?” He grins. “You won’t.”
I don’t want to. But…
“I want it more than I do leaving you in charge,” I retort. “How many kids are selling your drugs?”
He pauses, and I take the chance. “What have you done that I don’t have the guts to do?”
The guys around him sit still, but wait for his instruction, and I feel the hair on my arms rise as my phone records. Say something. Just one boast. I only need one piece of leverage.
But he looks over my head, gesturing someone over. I’m about to turn, but a girl appears at my side a moment later. A young woman with coppery red hair, dressed in a blue-sequined infinity slinga. She’s hanging out everywhere, her ass glowing with oil.
“This is Peridot.” Hugo blows out another puff of smoke. “Named after her birthstone.”
I look away from her but keep my fucking chin up.
“She can give you a black eye with them tits,” he taunts, smiling at me.
He’s fucking with me. Drew used to do the same thing. Drop a line and see if I’d bite. I always thought it was because he wanted a friend to go down the rabbit hole with. Maybe he’d feel less sleazy if I did it too.
Now I know…he wanted me to feel sleazy. He wanted me to look in the mirror and see him. He hated me.
“Let her dance for you,” Hugo tells me as my phone vibrates, “and I’ll give you anything you want.”
“Like Reeves’s location?” I fire back, ignoring a call from Isobel.
A slow smile curls his lips, and he shrugs. “Sure.” Hugo announces to his crew, “Hear me, boys? My word is gold.”
“Yep,” one of them concurs.
Yeah, right.
Before I know it, she’s in front of me, holding my shoulder for support as she starts to come down into my lap.
Fuck.
I freeze, the moment hitting me like a car. The memory of Quinn’s lips over my forehead—like a ghost—cooks my muscles until they’re burning, and I shoot up, pushing her off.
No.
I’m not playing these fucking games.
The whole table erupts into laughter as Isobel’s name flashes on the screen again, and I do everything to stand tall and not give away that my pulse is racing. The young woman retreats a few steps as my phone vibrates, her eyes flitting between me and her boss.
Hugo chuckles, pleased with himself for calling my bluff as he takes another drag of his cigarette. “This is my family for a reason. You could never replace me.”
Yeah, no shit.
I’d never want to be him.
But the word family keeps turning over in my head.
My family, he’d said.
Your family is your strength.
They all stare at me, probably waiting for my next move, but I stare at the call continuing to come in.
My family.
“I’ll be in touch,” I murmur to them, backing away. “Tonight.”
And I spin around, heading out of the club and hearing Farrow on my heels. “I need to check on Quinn,” I call back to him.