Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 110550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
“You’re a designer, Kenzie. Get your job back and you can go everywhere this shit goes. When they make their move, you’ll catch them, we’ll pick them up, then we’re a step closer to finding out who’s leading the Brotherhood. We can stop this before it blows into an all-out war.”
“Sunny, I love that plan, except there’s one thing fundamentally wrong with it. I won’t get my job back. They think I’m a fraud and a thief,” she cried. “Talia bad-mouthed me to every fashion house in town. From Gucci to Green Mart. The hiring manager would sooner shoot me on sight than give me back my desk.”
“Talia and that moronic shithead would stand in the way of you getting your job back, but they ran off to New York.” I rubbed her arm. “Hollywell has taken over as creative director and he knows who the Johnsons really are. He’s not stupid enough to argue when I tell him you’re rehired.”
“It’s not just him.” Kenzie pushed off the couch. “The Brotherhood knows I’m with you guys. What if they see right through this? A trap for the rat could easily become another trap for me. Bane and I haven’t started training yet.”
“Training?” Genny, Liam, and I said at the same time.
“Yes, training. He’s going to teach me everything he knows, so that the shipping yard and New York never happens again.”
I turned raised brows on Bane. “I don’t even know everything he knows.” My brother beamed at me. “If training is what you’re after, why didn’t you say? Watching you knife-throw is a recurring fantasy of mine, Angel.”
“No one is saying that fantasy won’t come true,” she said, returning to my side. “But I’m serious. You put in a massive order, then install me in Caddell House? If this shadow leader is so smart, won’t he put those pieces together?”
“It’s all in what you say,” Liam threw in. “They won’t expect something’s up because every move we make will be within the realm of possible. We have a new enemy that evades us by going into Rockchapel. Makes sense we’d decide now is a good time to make an alliance with the Rat King. The Merchants are also working with Delaney to help Adams’s victims. Why wouldn’t we donate clothes to people who’ve lost everything?”
I nodded along. “Anyone who knows the story of your firing, should know you proclaimed your innocence far and wide. You’ve got yourself a boyfriend who can pull strings. Why not use him to take back everything unjustly stolen from you, and show up a few primp assholes while doing it.”
“Because I would never use you.”
“They don’t know that,” Bane said gently. “They don’t know you, Kenzie. That’s the point. You’re not a banger, thief, con woman, or hit woman. You’re a normal person who landed a rich boyfriend. They won’t expect the next strike to come from someone they’ve labeled disposable.”
She visibly stiffened. “Okay, you have a point. With my history at CH, most people would jump to me using my boyfriend’s power to rub out the stains from my past. But even if they don’t think my threat to them is real, their threat to me is. They attacked Genny at the first opportunity. Losing all those men less than a week ago didn’t slow them down. Obviously, they’re done with the subtle approach.”
Kenzie looked to Bane. “I want to fight and protect all of you, but if there was ever a test of if I was ready to do it, it was when that monster took my baby. I wasn’t strong enough to stop Luca, but I will be next time. After Bane trains me.”
Frowning, I turned her back to me. “Kenzie, I want you to have all the self-defense training you want, but not because you think you have to protect me.”
“Why wouldn’t I think that?” She stroked my cheek. “Protecting me is all you think about.”
I wanted to argue with her, but couldn’t.
“Hey, I’m all for the Blaines becoming one of us,” Genny said. “To be honest, I was going to train these two myself once my leg healed up. Next time these bastards try to kidnap her, we’ll roll up to that crime scene and find out she already got the job done.” Genny smacked Kenzie’s thigh. “But she’s not there yet. How about this? You guys work on getting her back in Caddell House, and I’ll work out her security. There. We’re done,” she said before we got a word in. “Now onto other concerns. Who is the poor bastard who burned to death in my decoy bedroom?”
“Could it be the bomber?” Sienna spoke up. “Maybe it went off too early.”
Bane, Liam, and I shook our heads. “If they were that close when it went off, there wouldn’t be a body,” Liam said. “They’d be nothing but mist.”