Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 128290 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128290 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
“You can shoot me anytime you want, and we both know how bad you…want, little nightmare,” he damn well purrs.
“I am way too sober for this,” she mumbles, tossing the little pill in her mouth and lifting her hand into the air.
Not ten seconds later, a girl rolls a bar cart over, and drinks start getting poured.
Hayze looks to Nicholas then, cocking his head. “Do I know you?”
Nicholas stands tall. “I was wondering the same thing. Not sure I’ve seen you around.”
“Hmm.” Hayze stares, but turns his back a moment later, focusing all his attention on Bronx instead.
Nicholas frowns but smiles when the cocktail waitress passes him a drink. She hands me a chardonnay and I sit back, facing Nicholas when he turns to me once more.
“So.” He smiles.
“So.”
“I still can’t believe it all worked out.”
I nod, glancing toward Enzo once more. “He agreed a lot easier than expected, actually.”
“It would’ve been more believable if he would have made you sweat a bit.” He chuckles.
His word choice has my head cocking. “Believable?”
His eyes snap back to mine, his drink freezing at his lips. He watches me closely, almost as if searching for something, but then he laughs, dipping closer. “Sorry. I’ve seen the tabloids. You’re going the we’re in love route.” He winks, pretending to zip his lips, and turns to Damiano, maybe a little too eagerly.
My attention shifts then, gaze locking with Enzo’s instantly, and his face is set in a hard line. I down my glass, holding it up without taking my eyes off his as the waitress pours me a second. In that moment, something shifts, Enzo’s eyes pop up, a look of pure rage blanketing his features.
He flies to his feet in an instant and I frown, but then a hand closes over mine on the stem of the glass, and I tip my head to the side to see who is touching me to find big blue eyes staring back.
“Hello, beautiful girl,” Philip beams. “What was Enzo thinking, letting you out alone, and in such a dress?”
I don’t have time to tell him I’m not alone or that Enzo picked out said dress.
The man himself appears out of fucking nowhere, and all hell breaks loose.
Chapter
Seventeen
Enzo
“There is cause for concern.”
Dragging my eyes away from my bride and that fuckhead, Galley, who I might have to fry later for looking her in the eye, I move my gaze back to Torin.
“Explain.”
Torin sits back, one leg propped against the other, a glass of whiskey in his hand. “The firewall they set up. Bronx obliterated it in twelve seconds.”
“Did you not say she’s better than you were at her age?”
“She is my daughter. She will be better than all who came before her.” His smirk is smug, but quickly wiped away. “However, it took my entire team seventeen days to find a name to so much as link to the attack that left you in Costa Rica this last time, and that was but a name.”
My eyes narrow, waiting as his second passes mine a folder.
“If that took seventeen days,” Torin continues, “how is it my daughter hacked into their system in twelve seconds and found all of this?” He inclines his head toward the folder as Mino opens and reads over the documents.
Mino’s eyes meet mine, his jaw clenching. He doesn’t have to tell me what it is, we’ll go over that later, but his reaction confirms Torin’s insinuation.
“They wanted this found. Why?”
He shrugs. “We’re even now, son.” Sitting back, he touches the flame of his Zippo to the tip of his freshly cut cigar. “The rest is up to you.”
I jerk my head in response, and Mino hands the man his payment.
We settle in our seats, and I return my gaze to my bride.
She’s smiling. Laughing.
She’s smiling and laughing, and it’s not pointed at me.
“I take it the courting period isn’t going so well?” Torin’s tone has a hint of mockery.
Slowly, I slide my eyes his way, my expression blank. The man knows me well enough. Even before I let go of my plans for Rayo Revenaw, he and I had a working…understanding.
He understood I could cut him off at the ankles if he didn’t extend his hand to me when I reached for it, and I understood he was but an old man holding on to his legacy with both hands until his daughter took her place as the head of it. We are not the same, but he was smart enough to know you don’t piss on the wolf when he’s a born hunter.
Everyone in this world has a particular skill, and where the Galley family is my go-to for private investigation of living flesh, the Bandonis are the shadows behind keyboards, expert hackers with endless reach.
Torin dips his chin in respect or apology, I don’t know or care, and his lips curve when my features don’t change. “You like her.”