Series: Penny Dee
Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 97669 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 488(@200wpm)___ 391(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97669 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 488(@200wpm)___ 391(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
Mikhail’s tech analyst wasn’t able to get a hit on Leonore’s face. But this much is useful to me.
I know what Leonore has done. She stole this woman’s identity.
I don’t need to know how.
What I want to know is why.
I look out the window that oversees the dance floor, my eyes naturally gravitating to the bar where I watch Leonore pulling a face as she tastes the cocktail she is holding. The corner of my lips tilt slightly, knowing it’s probably too sweet for her. So if you’re not Leonore Graves, who are you really?
A low knock on the door interrupts my thoughts, and I’m quick to hide the files in my drawer. When the door opens, it’s exactly who I was expecting. Elias Nero. He looks tired, though still immaculately put together.
One of my men stands there holding the door open, and I dismiss him to leave us in private.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” I say sincerely.
“That’s a pretty fucked-up thing to say since you were the one who put my two brothers in the grave,” Elias growls, but it lacks bite. I pour a glass of whiskey for us both and offer him the seat across from me.
He does so, looking more man than anything else today.
I look back out at the window, still watching Leonore as I speak. “Your brothers made a miscalculation, even if you tried to protect them.”
He sighs. I knew it would go either way. He’d either try to kill me or accept the truth of their individual actions. “I had no particular fondness for my brothers,” he says as if hearing my thoughts. “But the killing spree stops here, or I will have to get involved.”
I have no doubt.
At the bar, Leonore’s hips begin to swing to the beat of the music and as I watch her, I feel the heat of protectiveness sweep through me. I brought her here because I want to keep her close. Now that I know what I know, I don’t want to set her free until I uncover who she really is.
“What does your father have to say about this?” I ask, somewhat curious. Apollo has been quiet for months now. There’s an internal shift within Nero’s crew, and I know other crews will have noticed by now as well.
Elias sighs, as if a defeated man. “My father’s sick. He’s been bed-bound for months now and doesn’t have much longer.” I turn to face him. I don’t much like Apollo, but my uncle and he were close.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I say, genuinely meaning that because I know what it’s like to watch a mother slowly die from cancer, unable to fight her demons or keep her safe.
Elias casually shrugs. “But my brothers acted impulsively. Had they acted like that as the head of the crew, we would’ve been in trouble.” It goes unsaid that I helped him clear a path to become the heir. It wasn’t for him, but he’s the only one I’ll do business with. It doesn’t mean that I entirely trust him. After all, an eye for an eye can often create a very bloody future.
“What will you do now?” I ask, going to take a sip, but pausing the drink at my lips when I notice Cian Hayes slinking up beside Leonore. My grip immediately almost shatters the glass.
“Regroup. I only came here to tell you the blood spree has to stop. I don’t want to oppose you, Silas, but I will if it comes down to it.”
I look at him then, really taking him and his mismatched eyes in. We’re around the same age. And I have no doubt that, if he matures, he’ll be either a great ally or an adversary. I look forward to either. “Then we share the same sentiment.”
He stands as he adjusts his cuffs. “My father sends his condolences. Pietro was a good friend to him.”
Then he lets himself out. Valen walks in with an eyebrow raised. “No body bag tonight; that’s rather refreshing. I have some information on one of our new weapon deals,” he says as he immediately steps into business, but my focus and gaze burns into the floor beneath us.
“Boss, are you listening?”
“I am,” I say, looking down. She is on her second drink, and Cian Hayes is getting a little too close for my comfort. I place my whiskey down and head toward the door.
“Boss, where are you going…” I walk out without looking back; the weapons deal can wait. But Cian being that close to her cannot. I have warned him already about her; seems he doesn’t like to listen to me.
Pity really.
That I will have to kill him.
“He’s the man I fuck,” she says as I get closer. I stop directly behind Cian, who doesn’t realize I am there, but she does, because her eyes are on me. It fills me with pride that she tells him that we’re fucking because I know she likes to fight her own battles. I’m also aware of how the other crews treat her. No one has a monopoly over her, so for her to say that to him draws a line in the sand, as much as she says it with a dismissive tone that I’m nothing but a piece of meat. But I’ll take what I can get.