Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76821 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76821 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
“And he lived to just about fifty,” Triss said, reaching over to snag a noodle off of Donovan’s plate. “And attempted to bite me every single day. So you don’t scare me, mister,” she told the bird. “Not even if your beak is twice his size. If you give me the foam, I’ll give you the noodle,” she said, dangling it in front of his face.
When he dropped the foam, she tossed the noodle into his bowl, then fetched the foam.
“Fuc—“ the bird started.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m used to the trash talk, too,” she told him. “So… who is going to give us a tour of this place?” she asked, practically bouncing on her feet.
I almost wanted to declare that I didn’t want a tour. Which made no sense. I’d been curious about this clubhouse for years, had made it a matter of a lot of speculation and fantasy.
Somehow, though, I kind of just wanted to sit and talk to Donovan. Find out more about him.
He’d always been one of the guys that I couldn’t really figure out much about, aside from the racing history. And his fancy fashion sense.
But then one of the new guys, Levee, was offering to show us around, and I was forced to leave my interest in Donovan, and my food, at the table.
The rest of the house was, you know, a house. There really wasn’t much to write home about. The staircases led up to the second floor where there were bedrooms and bathrooms down the hall.
“You girls can stay in here,” Levee said, holding open a door to a large bedroom with its own full bath. “This is Huck’s old room. No one is using it right now. Come back down once you’re settled in,” he said, closing the door, and the two of us stood there in silence as we listened to his retreating footsteps.
“Don’t, Maeve,” Triss demanded. “I know that your innate sense of do-goodery wants you to tell them about the website, but I really don’t think it’s a good idea. Like, any other situation, I would say fine. But we are in danger now, and we really don’t need them pissed at us, and refusing to help us.”
“So, what? We’re just supposed to keep the charade up… forever?”
“I doubt we will be here long. Or dealing with them for any length of time. As much as a part of me kind of wants to be… dealt with by a few of them. I mean, did you taste that food? I practically wanted to drag Eddie into a closet just to give him a proper thank you.”
“Do not sleep with any of them,” I grumbled.
“I’m not going to do it,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I’m just saying that I wouldn’t kick any of them out of bed, is all. And after all the stories we’ve heard from…” she trailed off then, pressing her lips together. “Do you think they have cameras?” she asked, looking around.
“In the bedrooms? I mean, I hope not,” I said, but then I was looking around as well.
“Okay. That was just paranoia. They have no reason to suspect either of us of anything. I mean, maybe they don’t even know about the website,” she said, shrugging.
I mean… there was a chance of that, right? Sure, it came up pretty high in the search results if you typed in the club name and location. But who was to say they researched themselves?
“But what about…” I started.
“Maybe he didn’t tell them,” Triss said, knowing exactly who I was talking about.
“But he’s their friend.”
“Yeah, but if he didn’t think there was any harm in what you were writing, maybe he didn’t see any need to tell them. He only wanted his name off of the site because he’s, you know, an uber-rich businessman who doesn’t want the whole legitimate business world to know he associates with criminals in his free time.”
“True,” I agreed. I mean, I’d never directly spoken to the man, just his lawyers. They’d been nice enough, but very firm, about wanting his name off of my site.
I didn’t even know how they’d found me. But, I guess, when you had more money than God, you could have anything sussed out.
“What happens if he… finds out about all of this?” I asked, waving toward the clubhouse. “Don’t you think he will feel obligated to share that with the guys?”
“I mean… yeah, probably. But you heard them. We won’t be here long. They are probably going to get that Booker guy to help us with security at our place, so we can go home.”
“True,” I agreed, though I wasn’t sure how I was going to be able to pitch in my portion to pay for it. Maybe I needed to excuse myself early tonight to stay up and get some more jobs done.