Total pages in book: 227
Estimated words: 220940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1105(@200wpm)___ 884(@250wpm)___ 736(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 220940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1105(@200wpm)___ 884(@250wpm)___ 736(@300wpm)
“I have nothing right now.” And business to sort out, for which I need to be on my A-game. “Let’s talk about it later.” I slip a hand onto her cheek, needing one more feel, one more kiss. Her wet hair tickles the back of my hand.
“Later?” she asks.
“Do you have plans?”
“Do you?”
“I might be killing a few men, but other than that, I’m all yours.”
She laughs, and it’s wholly inappropriate. But I’ll take it. I like making her laugh. “Call me,” she says, and then frowns.
“What’s up?”
“I smashed my phone.” She shakes her head. “Dropped it.”
“Speak to Otto. He’ll sort you out a new one. Ask him to load it with everyone’s numbers.” Most importantly, mine. I step into her, tilting her head back. “Kiss me.”
“Or else?”
I reach under the towel and grab her ass, and her eyes pop, the green greener, brighter. “Anyone would think you like me spanking you.” I raise a hand and bring it down in a stinger of a slap, knocking her into me. She grunts, her hands coming up and grabbing the lapels of my jacket as she peeks up at me and lifts on her toes, opening up, taking my tongue deep, sighing her happiness. “That’s better, gorgeous.”
“Call me by my name.”
“No.”
“Then I’ll have to think of a pet name for you.”
“Whatever you want.” I break away and slam a hard kiss on her cheek before walking away. “Just make sure it’s not daddy.” I cringe as Pearl bursts out laughing, but a knock on my door soon shuts her up. For fuck’s sake. I look back and indicate the bathroom, opening my bedroom door a fraction. “Doc?”
“Just checking up on you.”
I slip out.
“You look much better,” he says. “Did you have a good night’s sleep?”
I laugh under my breath as we start walking down the corridor toward the stairs. “Yeah. I was going to come see you.”
“Did you try the pills?”
“Not exactly.” I stop and look left and right, checking for company. How the fucking hell do I put this? Yes, Pearl can take the contraceptive pill, but that only protects her—us—from pregnancy. What about the endless times I’ve been . . . careless. Or maybe the condom’s split. “I need you to do something for me.”
“What?”
I shift, awkward as fuck. “Tests.”
“For what?”
Jesus, someone help me. “Things.”
“What things?”
“Fuck me, Doc. Read the room.”
He frowns, looking me up and down. “Ohhhh,” he breathes. “Tests.”
“Yes.” I exhale. “I just want to, you know, make sure everything is . . . clean.” Fuck, this is awkward.
“I’ll need a urine sample. Should probably take some blood if you want to be thorough.”
“I do.” I never want to wear a condom with Pearl again, especially after our shower. I stop walking, thinking, pulling at the collar on my shirt. “You free now?” Let’s get this done.
“Give me ten minutes. James has ordered a scan on Baby Enigma in an hour. I just need to set up the machine.” He cocks me a wry smile, and I laugh. Then stop.
“Wait, Beau’s okay, right?”
“Beau’s fine. You know how it is. A shoot-out, a scan. An argument, a scan.” He wanders off toward his room, and I take the stairs down to the kitchen. James is mixing that green shit he and Beau love when I enter.
He looks up as I pull a coffee cup down. “You need to make peace with Beau,” he says, grumpy as hell. “She’s stressing about you, and I don’t need her stressing about anything at the moment.”
Oh. So the scan is because of me? “She doesn’t need to stress about me, I’m fine.”
James stops chopping fruit and glares at me. “Tell Beau that.”
“Fine.” I laugh, going to the coffee machine. “I will.” I stab at the button and stare at the timer as it warms up, drifting into a daydream. I’m not sure what happened this morning. I had no intention of pointing the conversation onto me, but hearing how Pearl lost her mom really got me. I’ve buried that shit for years. I feel like, along with all the other feelings that are unfamiliar to me, I’m getting a hard dose of delayed heartache. Mom was a firecracker. Beautiful, confident.
And my dad ruined her.
I can’t blame Uncle Carlo for butchering the bastard. But back then, I thought my dad really had left. What I would love to know is if Mom did too, or if she knew what Carlo had done. All answers only a dead man can give me. Danny’s pops didn’t know that by killing my father to save his sister, he would actually end her. But that’s on Mom’s head. Not Carlo’s. She chose to leave this world behind. She chose to leave me behind. It doesn’t matter that I had Uncle Carlo. She chose him.
I vividly remember the day Uncle Carlo sat me down and told me that Mom had been involved in an accident. I don’t remember exactly when I figured out Uncle Carlo was protecting me. It didn’t matter by then. I wouldn’t have insulted him by confronting him about it.