Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Technically, Adler hadn't been legal either.
But if Che was good enough—like Adler was good enough—he wouldn't get caught.
"This one is interesting," she said, tapping a short nail on a picture of a guy holding the leash of a Pitbull. "Remington. Remy, they call him. He has... rage issues. And not like just a penchant for violence like Pagan. But he loses his mind and Hulks out. It seems to be somewhat random, but there has to be some sort of trigger. That would be something you should get West to focus on. You don't want brothers flying off the handle."
"Noted," I agreed, nodding. "And what about Huck?"
"He seems like a good leader. Laid-back, though, not a whip-wielding sort. These are his friends, even though they defer to him as their leader. He doesn't do drugs. He drinks, but isn't sloppy. He likes women, but they aren't what I would consider a weakness for him."
"Everyone has a weakness," I shot back.
"Yes," she agreed, nodding, reaching into her file again, producing one last picture. "This is his weakness. And, apparently, West's as well," she told me, making my gaze move down to find a still frame, dark and grainy, from inside a dimly-lit club.
A pretty blonde woman in cutoffs with wavy hair and a victorious smile holding the arm of a somewhat starstruck-looking West.
"Shit," I sighed, shaking my head.
"I mean, it really isn't that big of a deal. West might be a little... careless," she decided on, choosing the word carefully. "But he respects you and your orders. Tell him to leave Huck's sister alone. He will."
"It's not that," I said, shaking my head.
"What is it then?" she asked, brow furrowing.
"Your fucking mother was right," I said, already mentally saying goodbye to the money I was about to owe Lo.
"About what?"
"About West being the next one to fall."
"There is one picture of him on the arm of one woman," Chris countered.
Chris, unlike her mother, was not a hopeless romantic. She was almost coldly analytical. She liked facts and figures more than emotions. Sometimes she wasn't great at picking up on subtle—or obvious—hints about relationships of any sort.
"When was this picture taken?" I asked, stabbing it with my finger.
"About a week ago."
"I probably already lost five grand."
"No one falls in love in a week," she countered, shaking her head.
"No, babe," I agreed, nodding. "They fall in a moment."
"That's ridiculous."
"It's honest."
"It takes weeks, months even, to get to know someone."
"He's got a week already. I haven't heard shit about this woman from him."
"Which is a bit odd since, according to her friends' social media accounts, she is very close with her brother and his men."
"What's she like, this woman?" I asked, looking down at her picture. "Can you run me a file just on her?"
Chris's lips pressed together at that.
"That could take a while," she admitted.
"Why?"
"Because out of all of them, she has had the most run-ins with the police."
Yep.
I was going to lose my money.
Because if there was ever a woman who could make someone like West take a full stop, it was the kind who would never get boring.
"What's her name?" I asked, picking up the picture of the two of them.
"Augustina. But they all call her Gus."
"Gus," I repeated.
The girls club was about to have a new member.
And I was about to be a couple grand poorer.
FIVE
Gus
It wasn't that I was rejected.
I mean, we'd all been rejected at some point or another. Though, logically, it tended to happen to women less frequently. Whether that was because we didn't put ourselves out there as much, or because men just didn't turn down something being thrown at them, I had no idea.
But, yeah, it had happened.
Not a lot.
Joey from my middle school class, the hot new guy in my apartment building when I first moved out, the doctor at the place I worked.
If you put yourself out there enough, there was bound to be some rejection.
So it wasn't the rejection per se.
I mean, so what?
It wasn't the fact that he told me there was not going to be something between us.
It was the way he'd done it.
See, I'd suspected as soon as I'd seen him that he was someone that would be fun to play around with for a while.
But it had just been a suspicion.
Then he had to go and prove it. While cutting off the supply to anything else.
I mean, I'd had my fair share of experience with men. Of all levels of sexperience.
Not a single one of them had been able to get me off with their fingers.
Ayanna used to go on and on about how fingering was so underrated, that it was one of her favorite ways to get off.
I used to sit there silently because that had never been my experience.
Oral? Sure.
Actual sex? Hell yes. In the right positions especially.