Total pages in book: 30
Estimated words: 27958 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 140(@200wpm)___ 112(@250wpm)___ 93(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 27958 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 140(@200wpm)___ 112(@250wpm)___ 93(@300wpm)
Maverick’s footsteps faded behind us as another set walked in, and a second later, Hunter dropped a duffel bag on the floor and plopped down onto the couch.
“Get rid of your weapons,” I ordered.
Both men hesitated, and I cocked my gun, the sound seeming louder because of the dead silence in the room. Most guns didn’t cock anymore, but I specifically carried one that did because I got a kick out of moments like this. The simple click could scare the piss out of some people.
Father and son emptied their holsters and pockets, tossing guns, knives, and other interesting items to Hunter. He put them in a bag and threw it into the fireplace. A specific instruction we’d been given from Francesco.
Several hours later, we took our toys into the kitchen to wipe off all the blood, leaving two mangled corpses behind.
“Let’s get the fuck out of here,” I grumbled. With Tommaso, Elio, and their associates out of the way, all I could think about was having Britta in my arms again.
We parted ways with King and his guys, then retrieved our bikes. Maverick met us at the apartment with an SUV. Our motorcycles would be transported home another way because we were driving with Marylin.
When we were an hour from Old Bridge, my cell beeped, and I looked to see that I’d received a text with links to several articles in the Chicago news. One about an accident in a high-rise in Chicago. Apparently, the carbon monoxide detectors had malfunctioned, and everyone on the top five floors had died from overexposure. Interestingly, no other floors seemed to be affected.
There was also a report of a house fire at an address belonging to P. Truitt. The fire investigators pinpointed the fireplace as the point of origin, saying that the occupants had clearly been careless, leaving loaded weapons near the flames that eventually exploded, burning the house to nothing but ashes.
I didn’t bother to look for incidents at all the other locations we’d been involved in destroying.
The only thing I cared about was getting home to my woman.
11
BRITTA
Although Shaw had called to let me know that my mom was okay and he was bringing her to me, I needed to see her for myself. I paced back and forth in his room for the first couple of hours, then I headed downstairs and did the same in front of the bar. When I’d ridden down here with my mom two years ago, the drive had felt like it went so fast. But the three hours that I waited for them to pull into the compound felt as though it took forever.
Finally, Fox announced, “They just pulled through the gate.”
I raced to the door, my gaze searching for my mom. Tears welled in my eyes when I saw Shaw help her out of an SUV. She must’ve been lying down because I hadn’t seen her back there until he opened the door. As I ran toward them, I flashed him a grateful smile before throwing myself at my mom. “I’m so glad to see you. I was worried that we wouldn’t find you in time.”
“I’m okay, sweetie.” She wrapped me up in a big hug. I had missed feeling her arms around me so much, all I could do was lean into her and cry.
After everything she had been through, I should’ve been the one to comfort her, but she seemed more pulled together than I was at the moment.
“We have so much to do to get our lives back.” My mom scrubbed her hands down her face. “I’m sure our landlord has evicted us from the apartment in Chicago by now. It’s been so long that he might have gotten rid of all of our stuff, too. We’re probably going to need to bunk in a cheap motel for a little while, unless you want to go back to the place the Hounds of Hellfire got us instead. If we do that, maybe they’ll let me keep my job. In Chicago, I’ll have to start looking for a new one right away.”
“Oh…um…” My gaze darted toward Shaw, and my mom’s eyes narrowed.
“Who’s that guy?” she asked. “He’s been watching you the entire time we’ve been talking.”
“Shaw,” I whispered. “He’s the Iron Rogues Captain here at the head chapter.”
She quirked a brow. “And why is he looking at me like he’d gladly strangle me for talking about where we’re going to live?”
“Because he’s…um…” I struggled with finding the right word to describe our relationship without telling her that I loved him since I hadn’t said the words to him yet. “Stone. My boyfriend.”
It sounded almost ridiculous to use that word since he was so much more, but it was all I could come up with at that moment.
“You hooked up with Stone? The guy you’ve been thinking about for the past two years?”