Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 74276 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74276 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
“Get to the point, Mortimer,” I said, my stomach slowly sinking down into the floor.
“Yeah, uh, so, uh, they said your name.” He cleared his throat. “I didn’t take it, obviously. But I figured sooner or later, someone’s gonna step up and accept the contract, so I figured, yeah, you should know.”
Rage rolled through me in waves. The fucking Leones were still putting the contract out, despite all this fucking shit. They still wanted to come at me, like that was even remotely a good idea.
“Thanks for telling me,” I said.
“Sure.” He cleared his throat again. “Uh, we’re cool, right? I mean, I wouldn’t go against you or nothing, I just wanted to be sure, right?”
“We’re cool,” I said. “I appreciate the call.”
“Sure, man, sure. We killers gotta stick together, eh?” He laughed. “Anyway good luck with all that shit. I hope you can work it out with the family, yeah?”
He hung up without another word. I lowered the phone and stared at it for along moment before throwing it against the wall. It made a loud bang and left a dent in the drywall as it clattered to the floor. I stood there breathing hard, staring at the phone lying on the floor, the screen partially cracked.
I wanted to murder Roberto. I wanted to kill the whole Leone family, starting with their precious Don and moving down to every single lowlife and scumbag that worked for that piece-of-shit family.
I wanted to burn it all down.
“Tanner?” Elise knocked on the door gently then opened it. Her face poked in through the opening, worry etched in her eyes.
“They’re still coming for me,” I said.
She opened the door all the way and stepped inside. “What do you mean?”
“That was another hitman I know,” I said. “We’re a kind of professional cohort, you know what I mean? Small world, I guess.”
“Sure. Killers know each other.” She shrugged like it was totally normal and rational. Of course murderers all knew each other.
“He said the Leone family reached out to him about a job. Said the job was to take me out.”
“I guess he turned it down.”
“Yeah, he did, but someone will take it eventually.”
“What’s this mean? I thought they were going to sit down with my father?”
I shook my head and turned away from her. I didn’t want her to see the anger that threatened to spill over and ruin everything.
“Means a lot of things,” I said. “Means they don’t trust me, don’t trust your father. Maybe it means they don’t really plan on playing nice at all. Or maybe it means they’re going to punish me for going against them no matter what happens with your father. But either way, it’s fucked, and we need to be prepared.”
“What do we do?”
“We’ll stay here for now,” I said. “It’s safe enough and I don’t think we can survive another few days in a hotel room. We’ll move forward with our plans and hope shit works out.”
I heard her walk toward me and put a hand on my shoulder. I half turned and she reached up to touch my face with her other hand.
“I didn’t really think about what this would mean for you long-term,” she said.
I smiled and tilted my head toward her. “Just means I’m not going to be a hitman anymore.”
“It also means you just lost all your contacts on this city,” she said. “And the Leone family wants to hurt you now. I mean… it’s a huge deal, isn’t it?”
I stared into her eyes and thought about lying to her. She didn’t need this pressure on her right now. I wanted to make shit easy if I could.
But she was right. If the Leone family wanted to punish me, it didn’t matter how things shook out with her father and them. They’d come after me when this was all over whether I liked it or not.
Another problem for another day.
“It’s a huge deal,” I said. “But there’s nothing we can do about it right now. First thing’s first, we need to make sure they’re not going to come after you anymore. We need to make sure this peace goes through. Then I’ll worry about myself.”
“Tanner—”
“Trust me, okay? I don’t plan on letting them touch me.”
She chewed her lip and let me kiss her. I turned to face her, put my hands on her hips, and pulled her close.
“What a mess,” she murmured into my chest.
“I know.” I breathed the smell of her hair then released her. “Come on. Let’s make something to eat and figure out how we’re not going to kill each other for the next few days.”
She laughed lightly. “After that hotel room, I doubt this can be worse.”
“True enough.” She turned to head to the door and I grabbed her ass hard then draped my arm over her shoulder. “We’ll share my bed this time.”