Total pages in book: 168
Estimated words: 153571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 768(@200wpm)___ 614(@250wpm)___ 512(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 153571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 768(@200wpm)___ 614(@250wpm)___ 512(@300wpm)
"Where's she at, Finn?" I ask again, ignoring him.
"I told you, we're looking into it. Let it go, Roman."
"You know I can't do that," I say softly. He doesn't really want me to let it go anyway. If he did, he wouldn't have even brought her up. I know him. I know how his mind works. And I know damn well he wants a bullet in Guerrero's head as badly as I do. Unlike me, he's just not willing to do it himself.
"Fuck," he curses and then rattles off an address in Mar Vista.
I repeat it back, committing it to memory.
"Whatever you're going to do," he says, "you better do it fast. We're bringing her in."
"Son of a bitch. When?"
"As soon as I can spare a team."
"Give me two hours."
"Roman."
"Two hours, Finn. You know what'll happen to her if you go in and pull her out."
"Fuck, fine. You got two hours, and then we're bringing her in whether you like it or not," he mutters. "Hurry the fuck up and do whatever you've got to do."
"Yeah, thanks." I disconnect and then scroll back to Mila's text and run my fingers across the words, reminding myself what I'm fighting for. Why I'm here instead of there with her. I would defend her with my dying breath if that's what it took.
If Guerrero cares about this Ortega…would he do the same for her?
I don't know, but I don't have anything else to go on. If finding her gets me closer to him, I'll search the entire goddamn city.
"Yo, Brady," I yell. "Hurry up. We got shit to do!"
"Give me five minutes," he yells from the back of the house.
Knowing Tahani won't answer her phone if I call her, I lean back against the kitchen cabinet again and dial Trent's number. Until I can be with Mila, someone should be. She's alone and she's scared. She needs her best friend and a little bit of hope. Tahani's the only one who can give her that right now.
"Roman," Trent says on the second ring, wide awake. He's always up with the sun and out on the basketball court not much later.
"I need a favor."
"You know I won't make her talk to you," he says immediately.
I can't even be mad about that. I respect the hell out of him for having the balls to say it. His allegiance is to my daughter, exactly like it should be. I'm fucking proud of her for picking someone worthy of her.
"I'm not asking you to, but I am asking you to take her to Mila," I say, quickly filling him in on the situation or as much of it as possible. He knows more than Tahani about what I do, but not everything. He also knows why I keep this shit from her. I'll never tell her that he's known since shortly after they got together, but he needed to know in case I ever fucking failed her.
"Jesus," he mutters when I'm done talking. "Where is she?"
I rattle off the address of the hotel. "She's alone, and she's scared." I pause for a split second. "She's pregnant, man."
"Fuck me."
"I'd prefer for me or Mila to be the ones to tell Tahani that news, but if you have to do it…"
"I'll get her there, Roman," he promises me softly.
"Once this shit is dealt with, the silence ends," I warn him. "It's gone on long enough. I've given her all the time she's going to get. If she doesn't start responding soon, I'll show up on your doorstep."
"About fucking time," he mutters. "No disrespect to you, Roman. I know you mean well not telling her this shit, but I'm fucking tired of her crying. You need to handle shit there and then fix this because she's miserable, and it's driving me crazy. She misses you both."
"I plan on fixing it."
"Good. I'll get her to Mila. And congratulations on the baby, man."
"Thanks," I mumble, warmth spreading through me again. Mila's pregnant with my baby. I know she's worried out of her mind that something's going to happen to the baby, but I'm not. I know down to my fucking soul that the baby is going to be just fine because Mila's a warrior, and our kid will be too. With a mother as strong as her, how could our kid not be a fighter?
"It's about fucking time you did something about Mila. The only reason she was with that dick was because of you," he says, his voice deadly serious. "He didn't deserve her."
"No, he didn't," I murmur, surprised as hell that Trent knew how she felt about me, though I'm not sure why that catches me off-guard. She's looked at me the same way since the day I met her, like she wanted me to claim her as badly as I wanted it…like she wanted to curl up in my lap and stay there. It's honestly more surprising that Tahani never noticed than it is that Trent did.