Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 74078 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74078 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Accelerant, I had to imagine.
They sprayed a healthy amount over the man whose name I didn’t know, didn’t care to know, that I’d just killed.
“You should get going,” Jai said as his men rushed out of the room, and Jai casually walked closer to the body, took a long drag of his cigarette, then dropped it down on the man’s body.
The flames were almost instantaneous.
Big and angry.
But Jai just stood there, watching them lap at the body for long enough that I debated going over there and grabbing him and pulling him away.
Eventually, though, he took a step back, turned, and walked out of the room.
I followed, smelling more accelerant in the main area of the warehouse, noxious enough to make me hold my breath as I walked through, then out the door where I sucked in some fresh air before making a beeline for my car.
I didn’t say anything else to Jai or his men.
I figured my business with them was done.
I didn’t drive all the way back to the club, choosing instead to drop in on Teddy to let me wash up there.
“Cato,” Teddy greeted me as I walked into his penthouse.
Now, sure, Rynn had a penthouse.
But there was a difference in Rynn’s kind of money and Teddy’s kind of money. The “old money” sort. Coffers so deep that it would be borderline impossible to spend all that money in his lifetime.
Rynn’s living, dining, kitchen, and guest room could probably fit into Teddy’s living room.
The kitchen was off to the side, everything industrial and fine quality.
His penthouse was much like the man himself. Effortlessly classy.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen Teddy not completely put together. He had a suit collection—vests, pocket squares, ties or bowties, and cufflinks included—that made it so I rarely saw him in the same one twice.
He had a cream one on this time with a slightly darker, patterned vest beneath.
He didn’t, for once, have one of his many hats on.
“This is a pleasant surprise,” he said, keen-eyed gaze taking in the way I was flexing my knuckles, and the bruise that had to be forming on my jaw from where the bastard got one good punch in. The rip in my shirt where he’d yanked at it. “You know where the bathroom is. There should be a change of clothes in there that would fit you.”
“Thanks, Teddy,” I said, going into one of his guests rooms to get cleaned up, taking my shirt out into the hall to drop it down the trash shoot before making my way back in, finding him already waiting there with a glass of whiskey in his hand for me.
“Just you?” he asked.
“It was… personal,” I told him, tipping back my drink. “My girl was roughed up on a job,” I explained.
“Your girl?” he asked, brows raising. “That’s news to me.”
“It’s new but going somewhere.”
“Good for you,” Teddy said, nodding. “I can’t tell you how irritating it is to watch your brothers fight their growing interest in women they are clearly meant to be with.”
Teddy had always been a voice of reason in the relationships that built in the clubs. He was also the kick in the ass some of the guys needed to make them realize they had fallen in love, and they needed to hold onto that.
I had no idea what had happened in Teddy’s life to make him romantic that way, but it was an interesting dynamic to have around.
“So what is she like?” he asked just as my phone started to ring in my pocket.
“Sorry,” I said, seeing Rynn’s name on the screen.
“Ah, what the fuck, Cato?” she snapped, loud enough that Teddy’s brows lifted even standing several feet away.
“What the fuck what?” I asked, brows pinching.
“The news, Cato,” she snapped.
“News?” I asked Teddy, who nodded, then grabbed this giant-ass tablet that ran his whole apartment, and flicked on the framed TV.
There it was.
The fire.
Raging.
“Oh, that. That, believe it or not, wasn’t me. That was a new friend of yours,” I explained, hearing a long silence on the other end of the phone.
“Oh,” she said. “Okay. Well… where are you?” she asked.
“Invite her over,” Teddy said. “We can go to eat,” he added.
I rattled off Teddy’s address, telling her I was with a friend if she was interested in grabbing something to eat with us.
This was Rynn we were talking about.
She didn’t turn down food.
And she liked all of my friends so far.
Not twenty minutes later, I buzzed her up, then waited for her at the door.
Her gaze went right to that bruise on my jaw.
“I mean, I’m not innocent,” I told her. “But I didn’t set any fires,” I added, leading her inside. “Teddy,” I said as I closed the door. “This is…”
“Rynn,” Teddy said, head jerking back at the sight of her standing in his living room.