Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 69310 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 277(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69310 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 277(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
My life was predictable and safe. Everything I had I’d fought for alone. I was proud of what I’d survived and did all I could to give back. But that was all snatched from me in the blink of an eye. One mistake and I was taken.
Hale
No one undermines us and gets away with it. The family always finds out and lives are ended. My job had been simple. Track the rat and find out who he was working for. Somehow that had led to her. The pale, raven haired, beauty whose life on the outside appeared boring. But she had secrets and they made her a target. Our target
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Playlist
Wishful Thinking
Paige Fish
Choosin’ Texas’
Ella Langley
Neon Moon
Brooks & Dunn
Pretty Little Addict
Haiden Henderson
Slow Dancing in a Burning Room
John Mayer
Fix You Too
Megan Moroney, featuring Kameron Marlowe
I Only Miss You
Megan Moroney, featuring Ed Sheeran
Can’t Take My Eyes Off You
Frankie Valli
One
Hale Carver
Taking a puff from the Cohiba I’d just lit before Linc Shephard—the head of the Mississippi branch of the Southern Mafia—showed up, unannounced, in my office, I studied him. He looked ready to put a bullet in a man, but then he scowled like that often, so it might just be the fact that it was fucking one hundred degrees outside.
“Don’t figure this is a random visit,” I drawled, motioning for him to take a seat across from me on the leather sofa. “I was bored anyway.”
Linc took the worn cowboy hat off his head and tossed it on the leather before sitting down beside it. “There’s a dead fucker still walking,” he snarled.
I took the cigar from between my teeth and held it. “I got more of these. Want one?”
He paused, and for a moment, I thought he might cave, but he sighed and shook his head. Since he’d found out he had a little girl and moved her and her momma into his house, he’d not smoked. Trying to lessen his chances at an early death or some shit.
“Suit yourself,” I replied before placing mine back between my teeth.
“McKenzie is building a case against us,” he spat angrily.
“Vilmer?” I asked, thinking, surely, I hadn’t heard him right.
His expression, however, said I had.
“We put that fucker in office,” I raged in disbelief. The piece of shit wouldn’t be in DC if it wasn’t for us. “How did we find this out?”
“Bane put a tracker on him and bugged his flat in DC, along with his office. Just to keep tabs on things. He just brought me the evidence this morning, but Vilmer’s not doing this for his purposes. He’s doing it for someone else. That’s what we need to find out. He’s being very careful when he speaks to them on the phone. We need to get a tracer put on his cell. That’s being handled.” He said the last part through gritted teeth. “But we can’t sit and wait. Whoever he’s working for needs to be fucking scared. We move now. Which is why I’m here.”
He didn’t have to elaborate. I already knew.
“You want me to go to DC,” I finished.
He nodded. “Figured you’d want to see Opal anyway. Include her in this.”
My only daughter lived in DC and handled covering up things for us internally in the government.
“Yeah, it’s been two months since I laid eyes on her. Wouldn’t mind getting out there for a bit to spend some time with her.”
Linc leaned forward, resting his elbows on his bent knees as his brows lowered with a severe expression. “We don’t want them dead. Yet. We want them alive and brought in for questioning.”
I nodded. “I don’t like getting my hands dirty anyway. Too old for that shit.”
A sadistic chuckle came from Linc. “Sure you are.”
The corner of my lips quirked. I’d just sliced a fucker’s thumb off last week, but he’d deserved it. He’d stolen three fucking bottles of my best whiskey from our distillery.
Two
Bay Fox
This was the one part of my job that I loathed.
Boarding. It was never smooth, and there was always one or more headaches waiting to latch on to me. Mostly due to humans. Annoying ones. Who did not listen when told exactly what to do.
But other than that, I endured just fine. Was this the profession I’d worked so hard to get a degree in? No. But it kept me fed, off the streets, and living comfortably. The four years I had spent making the dean’s list and living off caffeine because I also worked full-time as a server at an all-night diner had been for nothing. I’d never be able to go back to the life I had almost killed myself for.
The familiar taste of bitterness began to stir inside me, and I shoved it down. Refusing to let it bait me. That was all behind me. I’d moved on, figured it out, and here I was. A senior cabin flight attendant with American Silver Airways after only four years, and for the most part, I was living a good life. I hated people the majority of the time, but they didn’t know it. Winning.