Total pages in book: 181
Estimated words: 171979 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 573(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 171979 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 573(@300wpm)
This match didn’t go down like the others, where Valerie had triple KO’d each one of them. They started out the gate in a rare tie with everyone’s eyes glued to the TV.
Scared to get beaten, or to win, he knew he’d never hear the end of it either way, knowing either the guys would make jokes that a girl was finally able to beat The Great Salvatore or Valerie would accuse him of cheating like she had last night in Mario Kart.
It was a lose-lose situation; under no circumstances was Sal coming out of this a winner.
Valerie wiped the sweat off her forehead with the inside of her elbow. Fucking hell, he was good, but she’d be damned if he ended her winning streak.
“What the hell do you do?” Amo asked, looking at Valerie in disbelief when they went to another tie.
“She designs video games,” Kat said appreciatively.
“Well, that explains the nerd-off,” Amo huffed, watching them go at it. “You’re not able to look up our Internet history, too, are you?”
Thankfully, Valerie laughing didn’t cost her the game when she realized how it was that Sal put the fear in the big men. “I don’t really use my gifts for that. I more so use them on myself.”
“Someone could learn something from her, ahem”—Amo coughed loudly—“Sal.”
“What do you mean by that?” Sal asked, responding to Valerie and not the annoying cougher.
“Like, I mostly just incognito my shit.” She shrugged between mashing the buttons. “For instance, you probably tried searching me up, huh?”
Sal’s heart dropped as she continued on, knowing full well he had.
“Then all you found were some speeding and parking tickets, and I’m sure you found out that I’m broke.”
His silence made all of their mouths drop, hanging on to her every word while they simultaneously watched the screen.
“Well, that’s not news to anyone.” Valerie laughed, uncaring that she was airing out her business. “The trick is you keep that stuff for show ’cause no one’s squeaky clean.”
Fucking hell, that was smart. He had to admit he hadn’t bothered to try to look into her deeper, taking the surface level as good enough.
“That’s why I left my speeding tickets, ’cause, I mean, who the hell pulls someone over and gives them a ticket for going eleven over?”
Sal, still dumbfounded he hadn’t thought of that, tried his best to take in this new information all while trying to murder her in the game.
“You got a speeding ticket for going eleven over?” Vincent ended his vow of silence there, getting pissed. “That’s foul.”
“Well, technically, I was going ten over. I know ’cause I had my cruise control set for it. I thought going ten over was an unspoken rule for being okay.”
“Nah, it’s five,” Amo told her, popping another kernel into his mouth.
“Ten,” Kat visibly disagreed, making Dominic give his baby sister a scolding look.
“Five.”
“Ten,” Maria corrected her husband.
“Agreed,” Adalyn and Angel chimed in.
“Five is always a safer bet,” Elle said, but her boyfriend challenged, “You shouldn’t have gotten pulled over for that. That’s just a waste of everyone’s time.”
Chloe even gave her two cents, agreeing with Nero. “I do think it was a little harsh to give you a ticket for that.”
“What do you think?” Valerie asked Sal curiously, having heard the other’s responses.
“I mean, you did technically get a ticket for eleven, not ten ri—Ow!” Sal bellowed when Maria’s heel hit him in his foot.
Valerie just rolled her eyes, not sure why she thought he would think any differently than analytically. Typical.
Lucca, who had been quietly listening to everyone discuss, finally gave his opinion on the matter. “Do you know the officer’s name who wrote you the ticket?”
By the dark look on his face, he meant to do something about it. She knew she was risking a man’s life, but she just couldn’t help it, remembering when she was almost shoved to the ground.
“Why, yes, I do—Officer Dunbar.”
Maria hitting him again, this time more discreetly, had Sal taking a mental note of that name. He’d been on duty the night of Valerie’s arrest and usually patrolled with Officer Daniels. However, he was certain if Daniels was there, she wouldn’t have gotten a ticket in the first place, let alone been pulled over for that. Dunbar enjoyed giving out tickets; he had one of the highest quotas in the precinct.
Amo’s big mouth spoke up again when Valerie was just about to win. “Come on; aren’t you supposed to be The Great Salvatore, or what?”
Oh shit.
The controller slipped from Valerie’s hand in pure shock, letting Sal use his finishing move and defeating her. Thinking maybe she hadn’t heard Amo correctly, she knew she actually had when Maria spoke.
“Wait—” The blonde looked around to see it wasn’t only her who was confused. “You didn’t even at least tell her who you are?”