Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69303 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 277(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69303 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 277(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
“Yeah?”
I took a hesitant sip and said, “Where’s all your Christmas stuff?”
Twenty-One
OMG guys, that’s not what I said.
—Apollo to Doc
APOLLO
“Hello?”
I switched lanes, getting behind a slow person doing at least twenty under the speed limit before the person on the other end deigned to speak.
“I hear you’re getting new identities for a few friends.”
I paused. “What’s it to you, Semyonov?”
Of course, I knew it was him. There were only so many people who had this number.
“Can you pull out one more?” he asked.
I flicked on my blinker and pulled off at the next exit that would lead me to my home.
“Who?” I asked hesitantly.
“Another of The Seven,” Sascha Semyonov, the leader of the bratva, stated. “Campbell Reid.”
“How’d you know I was getting out Romeo?”
“I’ve kept tabs on Romeo since he’s a member of The Seven,” he murmured. “Plus, nothing happens in my town without me knowing it. You used one of my favorite forgers for his papers.”
I sighed. “So much for confidentiality.”
“He’s mine,” he admitted. “Will you get Campbell out?”
“Why should I?” I asked. “You have a computer guru. Why can’t you?”
“Because they watch me too closely as it is,” he said. “They’re going to put a lot of eyes on me the moment that you break Romeo out anyway, since he was a known associate of mine.”
I’d found that out during my research.
I had let Dru know that her brother was into organized crime, and that was likely the reason that the government threw the book at Romeo, and not because he’d nearly killed a man in a crime of passion.
“What’s Campbell in for?” I asked.
“Bullshit charge,” Sascha answered. “Shooting a cop that came into his house without a warrant and without warning. Just barged into his place. Campbell fucked him up before he got two steps inside. Should’ve been an easy case of self-defense, but everything that could go wrong in that trial did go wrong. They doctored an artificial intelligence video showing that the cop did knock and announce himself. Everyone in the courtroom believed it. But that fuckin’ thing was fake as fuck. I fuckin’ hate AI.”
“Lovely,” I said. “I was pulling out a few more, anyway. Romeo’s friends with a lot of them. Trustworthy fellows that were fucked over by the system.” I didn’t beat around the bush. “But I’ll do my own research about Campbell before I agree.”
“Don’t blame you,” he said. “Let me know if you need any help elsewhere. I have a buddy that’s done this before, though he went the legal route.”
“Mine’s definitely not legal,” I admitted. “Call me back later tonight since you didn’t deign to share your number with me.”
Not that I couldn’t find it out if I wanted to, which he damn well knew. I just didn’t want to expend the effort right now.
“Talk to you later,” he said as I slowed to the speed limit behind a tractor trailer.
Once I got close to my place, I stopped at the bakery nearest my house that a friend owned and picked up a dozen cookies that were decorated like Christmas had thrown up on them.
Heading home, I pulled into the driveway and smiled when I saw all the decorations outside.
Way more than I’d ever had before.
Then there the woman that had stolen my heart was, balancing precariously on a ladder, as she tried and failed to get an ornament hung the size of my torso on the eaves of my house.
I set the box of cookies on the rather large wooden statue of Rudolph and walked up to her. Once I was close enough, I cupped that incredible ass, causing her to squeak.
The ornament hit the ground and bounced, but the woman that I’d groped threw herself into my arms and said, “You’re home!”
Home.
Home.
A little piece of me that’d broken apart when Tavi had died, knowing that I’d never hear someone say “you’re home!” again, mended itself.
Not all the way.
There were still jagged tears inside of me, but it was better. Slightly mended, with plenty more things that needed fixing to go.
But she was getting me there, one hug at a time.
“I’m home,” I murmured quietly as I smoothed my hand up the length of her back. “What are you doing?”
Seeing as I asked this with my face buried in her neck, not letting up one bit on my hold, she answered me against my ear. “I’m decorating. I thought the stupid boring lights weren’t enough. Do you think you’ll get in trouble?”
I’d hack into the damn HOA and change the fuckin’ rules if I had to.
This would be okay.
“No,” I lied, even though I knew that I’d be asked to take them down. “I think it’ll be fine.”
She wiggled in my arms, and I took the hint and let her down.
“Come see what I did,” she ordered as she took me around to each and every Christmas decoration that she could find. “And before you ask, I paid for this myself.”