Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 88487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
It was four in the morning and right now, most of the island was still asleep. The perfect time to handle some evil deeds.
“I’ve been in Gaoxing a week,” West announced, trying to get them back on track. “Talked to people, dug around. Kairo even did some digging and on the surface, everything looks good. I met with Crown Prince Jin Long Wei, who is the target. He’s a nice guy. The people love him.”
“Eh, someone wants his throne,” Justin brushed off.
“No, he put the contract on his own head.” West dropped that bomb and received several gasps and random noises of disbelief. “The country is nearly bankrupt, and he thought if he died, the life insurance money would help his people. I don’t know shit about managing money for a country. Hell, I’m just a step above tucking my money under a mattress. Kairo is the one who set up my retirement account and manages it. So, I can’t make any arguments about how to save his country from money troubles.”
“That’s messy,” Soren murmured, proving that he was standing with the others somewhere in Colorado.
“I think it gets worse,” Alexei reassured him. “I’m pretty sure West mentioned something about a body in his trunk.”
“We’re assuming that’s not the prince,” Gabriel drawled.
“No,” West snarled, his fingers tightening on the wheel until his knuckles popped. “The prince is still alive.” He sucked in a deep, calming breath through his nose and pushed it out again through his teeth as he mentally repeated the reassurance that Jin was safe and sound in his bedroom right now. A bedroom he’d thoroughly checked earlier. “Less then forty-eight hours ago, Marilyn and Alexei sent me word that two assassins had accepted the contract and were in the royal capital of Jin. Earlier in the day, one took a shot at the prince. The prince escaped, and I eliminated the hit man.”
“And that’s the body in the trunk?” Justin inquired.
“No. At two a.m., an assassin attacked the prince in his bedroom. I eliminated that would-be assassin—”
“West,” Soren started, sounding as though he were just barely holding on to his laughter. “My friend, what were you doing in the prince’s bedroom?”
“I was trying to warn him that there was a contract on his head, but the assassin beat me there and was hiding in his closet.”
“But, West…”
“Soren,” he growled.
“Okay, okay. Not the time. My bad. You killed the other assassin, and now he’s in your trunk,” Soren continued, and it sounded like the asshole was still snickering.
“Yes.” West tapped the brakes and slowed the sedan through a snakelike curve blanketed in thick darkness before heading up a steep, winding road. He didn’t mind driving winding roads at night with a corpse in the trunk, but there was a part of him that missed having Ed in the driver’s seat right now. Fuck, Ed would be the perfect person to talk to after this call about why he couldn’t get his head clear when he was around Jin.
“So, you’ve taken out both the assassins who were in town?” Justin prodded.
“No. The first one matched a picture Alexei sent me, but the second one does not. I sent a pic to both Alexei and Marilyn. I don’t know assassins. Maybe you’ll recognize him. The problem is that either your intel was wrong about one guy who claimed to take the contract or maybe pulled the wrong pic.”
“Or the second man is still running about Jin, looking to take out the prince. Possibly even more assassins are in town without your knowledge,” Gabriel stated in a cold, hard voice. “I would wager that you’re outnumbered.”
“Very likely.” West sighed. Being outnumbered didn’t bother him. He was used to it. He liked those odds. More targets for him to shoot at. The problem was trying to stay close to Jin to keep him safe while hunting these assassins.
“How do you want to handle things?” Gabriel inquired, which he appreciated. The man was acknowledging that this was his party, though he wished Charlie was there to make sense of all this insanity. Charlie was a natural leader and planner. He took care of the logistics. West’s job was to go where he was told and shoot his target. Clean and easy was better.
“We need to join him!” Alexei announced before West could gather his thoughts. “The guy is up to his eyeballs in assassins. He’s going to get himself killed, and he needs to protect the sexy prince!”
“How the fuck do you know he’s sexy?” West demanded. He had no chance to stop the words. They were already out. Yep, totally walked right into that one.
Alexei chuckled, and there might have been some more snickering from the peanut gallery. “I might have looked up his picture online. He’s totally sexy in that cool, collected, hot Asian way. Like nothing could ruffle his royal feathers.”