Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 52779 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 264(@200wpm)___ 211(@250wpm)___ 176(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 52779 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 264(@200wpm)___ 211(@250wpm)___ 176(@300wpm)
“Let me take you out to celebrate,” he says against my cheek when he breaks the kiss. “If you don’t, I’ll have you right here.”
“Is that supposed to make me want to go have dinner? Because I’m not sure you wanna threaten me with a good time.”
He chuckles and I feel the rumble of it low in his chest because I’m pressed so tight right up against him.
“Katie, it’s your call. You wanna go out and celebrate?”
“Yeah, I do,” I admit. “I’m really excited and proud about this.”
“You should be. Let’s go.”
We take the elevator down to his car and a driver whisks us to a high-end restaurant I’ve only heard about because of the six-month waiting list. They take us right in and seat us at a private dining room in the back.
“I can’t believe we got in here,” I say, taking in the sumptuously decorated room in sleek black and white with purple accents. Candlelight and soft music seem to envelop us. “No menu?” I ask.
“We’re having the chef’s tasting menu,” he explains and tells me what it is. It sounds like it is going to be the fanciest food on the planet.
Over the first few courses, I tell him all about the CPA exam. He listens and then starts talking as fast as he can like he’s got pent up things to tell me. I grin and take it all in. I’ve missed his considerate listening and his unexpected enthusiasm over telling me something random he saw or read about.
By the time we’ve finished the fifth course, I shift in my seat a little uncomfortably.
“You okay?” he asks.
“I’m great,” I say. “This place is gorgeous.”
“Yeah,” he says. “But I’m ready to get out of here.”
“Me too,” I agree.
He gestures to the server and tells them we’re leaving. He pays with his phone and when the man objects and offers to wrap up the remaining two courses, Mick tells him that he can have them. “Sit down and have dessert or whatever,” he says. “Tell the manager it was my special request.”
As soon as we’re in the car, Mickey starts talking rapid-fire once more.
“I miss you, Katie. So much. I want you back,” he says. I gape at him, my mouth open. “In my life, in my house. Everything’s trash without you, and it took me a lot less than three weeks to figure that out.”
“You’re serious?”
“I am. How do you feel about it?”
“I miss you too,” I tell him. “I’m miserable without you.”
“Come home with me. Spend the night,” he says. I nod.
“I have to go back and get my tablet.”
“In the crow’s nest? Nobody’s going in there except the cleaners tonight. Don’t worry about it,” he says.
“I really want to go get it now,” I tell him. “It’s important to me.”
“Okay,” he relents and directs the driver to stop at the Pearl.
I grab Mickey’s hand as we walk to the side entrance. I smile up at him, gleeful and excited to go back and reunite with him at his house, the real celebration of my exam score and us coming to our senses.
I’m still smiling when I see the man step out of the door and head toward us with a gun in his hand.
19
MICKEY
With one move I position Katie behind me, my body between her and the gun. My first thought is an exasperated Where the hell are my men? It registers an instant later that this is one of my men. I recognize him and the betrayal tastes as bad as I will make his death when this is over.
There are IT security officers watching the cameras. It won’t take a full minute for them to deploy a proper guard detail to this door and finish it up. All I need to do is buy sixty seconds. I could take this bastard in thirty if I didn’t have to worry about Katie. Because that’s what locks me up. He could shoot her and then every nightmare I’ve had about her bleeding out in this parking lot comes true. There would not be enough vengeance in this world or the next.
“Are you the one, then?” I ask, affecting casualness.
He snorts. “Why would I be important? You don’t even know my name, boss.”
“I know you, Oscar. We hired you about two years ago at the Oyster as an assistant in sanitation and janitorial.”
He shrugs. “That don’t prove nothin’. So you’re good with names. Nobody ever moved me up or promoted me to deal blackjack like I wanted. I was just stuck there.”
“And that’s your villain origin story? A janitorial assistant who didn’t get a highly competitive job dealing blackjack on his first try out of the gate?” I say. He’s insulted which is enough to keep him talking I hope.
Katie’s holding the back of my jacket with both hands. I feel the warm press of her forehead between my shoulder blades where she’s hiding her face and clutching me. I want to reach for her, comfort her, but I can’t so much as get a breath wrong.