Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 76365 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76365 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
I slumped back in the kitchen chair and stared at the framed picture of my dad on the wall. I fucking missed him. Since I hadn’t received a call from an estate agent or a box of ashes, I had to assume he was having the time of his life down in Mexico City. Lotto held me back from going to visit him a few times. Phone calls didn’t feel like enough. Especially now that we were wading in a sea of green bills and dark blood without a damn paddle.
“You’d know what to do, old man,” I said at the happy picture. He always had the best advice, even if I didn’t want to hear it. He was always there for me at my lowest and thought the best of me. In some sick way, it felt like I was letting him down… again.
The front door squeaked open, and Lotto’s familiar footsteps padded into the kitchen. He was still wearing his suit from the meeting with Troy, but his red tie was undone and hung from his shoulders. His suit jacket hung open with three open buttons of his dress shirt showing off his broad chest. He looked sexy as fuck, even as he stared down at me with a hard expression.
“Glad to see you.” He glanced at the smashed can. “Drinking?”
“Non-alcoholic,” I confirmed. “And complete shit.”
“That’s what happens when you buy shit beer.”
Lotto shrugged out of his suit jacket and threw it over the back of the other kitchen chair. My body spiked with heat as he began to undo his cufflinks. Every muscle in his arms strained against his tight white dress shirt.
He continued undoing the buttons on the front of his shirt as he spoke. “I tried to speak with Frankie. He told me to fuck off.” Lotto smirked and threw open his shirt, tugging his tank out of his slacks. “Are you going to tell me the same?”
I had to force myself not to stare at his firm chest. “Why would I?”
“You didn’t look too happy with me earlier.”
“I thought you’d back me up.” I exhaled through my nose. The reminder of his afternoon brought back the annoyance I’d felt at Smiley’s. “I don’t want Ari to do this.”
“But she’s going to. You’re not going to convince her otherwise.” Lotto gave me a look. “Did you get ahold of Teo?”
I sure had and by the end of the call, I’d wanted to pummel his face in. As soon as the words “fight at Heathens Hollow” came out, Teo pounced on it. Even when I explained the entire deal, down to Ari’s forced fight with Misty, Teo wouldn’t change his mind. It was a “fucking amazing opportunity, dude.” No matter what I said, Teo was in for the fight—and so was Ari.
So I kept my damn mouth shut.
Too bad Lotto knew me like the back of his hand. He chuckled and shrugged out of his dress shirt so I could get a good look at his tattoos. My gaze roamed over his upper chest as he began fiddling with his belt.
“So, by your own metric, you’re outnumbered two to one.”
“Ari will see reason,” I argued.
“My eyes are up here, Bones.”
I snapped my eyes to his, and his all-knowing smirk made my dick pulse. He knew exactly what I was thinking and what I wanted. He tugged his belt out of the loops, putting on a show now that I was caught red-handed.
“Now that I have your attention.” Lotto threw his belt down on the table, then crossed his arms over his chest. “What’s the reason you don’t want her out there?”
“I don’t want her to get hurt.”
“The real reason,” Lotto urged. “Not some bullshit lie to make yourself feel better.”
I swallowed. The reason? I was fucking terrified. I’d seen plenty of people get into the ring and come out a different person. Broken bones, missing teeth, and in one case an eye, seizures. The cage changed people. For someone like Ari—who had so much fucking light to her—to step foot in such a dark place… I didn’t want to risk it. Not after having already lost so many people close to me.
“I can’t…” I cleared my throat to ward off the dryness. “I can’t lose anyone else, Lotto.”
Lotto sighed. “He would have agreed with Ari.”
“Who?”
“Pops. He would have one hundred percent been on her side with this.”
The confidence in his sentence pissed me off. I slammed my hand on the table. “How the fuck do you know that?”
“He left us in her care. Told her to watch over us and keep us safe, and that’s what she’s doing.” Lotto crouched by my side and set a hand on my thigh. “In her own, stupid way.”
“At least we agree she’s being stupid,” I grumbled.
“She cares about us. She loves us. All of us.” Lotto squeezed my thigh and started trailing his hand up higher. My muscles jumped at the strength in his touch. “Ari is trying to protect us like we protected her and Smiley’s. We need to give her a chance or we’re going to push her away.”