Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 84446 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 422(@200wpm)___ 338(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84446 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 422(@200wpm)___ 338(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
“Who the fuck?” I hissed.
Rico, on the same page as me, shook his head. “I don’t know. But we gotta find out. If someone is making a move against you…”
“I need to talk to everyone I trust,” I said.
“Elian?” Rico asked.
“Dunno why that is a question.”
“That fight was… unlike him.”
“That’s a different thing.”
“You don’t think it’s possible that he wants you gone to take Lore himself?”
“No,” I said, voice final.
“Yeah, I agree. Just gotta play devil’s advocate here. Who else?”
“Dav.”
If that man wanted my position in this family, he’d had more than one occasion where he could have taken me out.
“Cinna,” I said.
“Yeah? Even though she’s been one of the biggest voices against this alliance?”
“Even though,” I said. “Besides, he said it was a guy.”
“True,” Rico agreed. “Anyone else?”
“Best move’ll be to keep this small. This is going to be a fucking nightmare,” I added, exhaling hard.
And so it was.
I had wall-to-wall meetings with my most trusted capos, telling them what was going on, and giving them instructions for what I expected from each of them moving forward.
Rico, Cinna, and Dav would catch up with the other capos, try to get a feel if anyone felt off.
Elian was to keep a close eye on Lore. Maybe even crashing in my study or a guest room for the time being, so she was never alone with another guard.
“Are you going to tell her?” Elian asked.
“No,” I said, shaking my head. Getting a grumble from Elian. “Listen, I don’t want her to know for her own good. You know her. She’s anxious enough already. She doesn’t need to be freaked out when people are in the apartment or shit like that.”
“You’re gonna still have the parties?” Rico asked, brows raised.
“If that changes, someone is gonna know something is up,” I said, even if the idea of having a traitor in my home made my stomach churn. “But I’m taking steps to keep an eye on shit.”
Which led me to the store to get a shitton of hidden cameras. I had cameras outside of my front door, of course, but the inside of my apartment should have been safe. That was why I kept guards at the door. No one could get in to fuck with shit there.
Except, of course, if the person I had to be wary of was someone I’d happily invite into that space.
So I had to install cameras all around the common areas. As well as my study. The guest rooms.
The only places that were safe were the bathrooms and my primary suite. As much as I wouldn’t mind footage of fucking Lore, I knew she wouldn’t be down with that.
Just the thought of her as I crept around the apartment long after she’d gone to bed had my cock aching.
How long had it been since I’d been inside her at this point?
Almost two weeks?
One lost because of her period.
One because I’d been so fucking busy I didn’t even have the energy to get undressed before I fell into bed, let alone be any good at fucking.
So I just caught a few stolen hours of sleep, then was gone again before she even woke up.
My gaze slid toward the chair where I’d held her last. Where I’d touched her. After she’d gone down on me and sucked me like a goddamn champ, easing the tension that had me ready to start throwing shit.
When this was done, I reminded myself, I could get my fill of her again. Until then, I was doing this shit to keep her safe.
“You got ‘em all?” I asked, moving into the study where Rico had the feed for the cameras up, clicking them on one by one until they filled the screen.
“Yep. All working.”
“And they go into the cloud? I don’t want shit to be able to be deleted at the source.”
“Only thing left is for you to plug in a password,” he said, waving toward the screen, then moving away from the desk, allowing me to pick one out without him knowing.
I racked my brain for something with the right letters and numbers.
And, for some reason, it came to me.
Her name. Full name. The one with my last one attached. And our wedding date.
Dunno where the fuck that came from, but it was what I went with, plugging it in twice, knowing it was something I wouldn’t forget.
“All set then,” he said, nodding.
“Go catch a few hours. We got another long day ahead of us,” I said, glancing at my phone to see we were only maybe two hours from sunrise already.
“Gonna be nonstop until we find him,” he said.
“Yeah,” I agreed, exhaling hard. “Tell Cage on your way out that Elian should be here by seven.”
“Will do,” he said, heading out.
Putting the screen to sleep so it required a code to open up to the camera feeds, I made my way upstairs, peeling out of my clothes, my gaze on Lore the whole time.