The Rook by Taylor Danae Colbert

Author:Taylor Danae Colbert [Colbert, Taylor Danae]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-03-17T16:00:00+00:00

Jake's eyes widen on her.

"And with my old man out of the picture, it really only leaves one person for all that to fall on, should any of that come to light," she says with a shrug. "Daddy Gantzler."

Jake's breathing becomes more rapid, his eyes moving back and forth like he's trying to calculate his next move. My guess is that he's seeing the number of zeroes on his commission check dwindle with every passing moment. She takes a step toward him so that they're almost nose to nose, and I feel my body tense. I raise my gun just a little bit so that it's still in his line of sight.

"Twenty-four hours, Jake," she says just above a whisper. And just as she's about to turn, she grabs his shoulders and jams her knee into his groin. He crumbles to the ground, gasping for air as his face turns a crimson shade. If I didn't still want to strangle him for touching her, I'd probably be smiling right now. Before we walk out, she kneels down and puts her lips to his ear.

"If I ever hear of you laying a hand on another woman again," she says, "I'll end you."

Then, she stands up and walks out the front door. Before I follow her out, I kneel down in front of him. His eyes lift to mine.

"She's giving you another chance," I tell him, "but if we should ever run into each other again, I can't promise that I will."

I ruffle his hair a bit, shoving his head as I stand and follow her out. She's standing by the car, dabbing at her cheek with the back of her hand. By now, she's got a little blood on her shirt, too. She looks up at me.

"Aw, damn, Avianna," I tell her, walking toward her. "I'm sorry. I should have gotten out there faster." She waves her hand at me.

"You couldn't have known just how big of a piece of shit he is," she says with a laugh. She looks at the blood on her hand and on her shirt. "Fuck. I can't go home like this. Carter's there, and Mick will be, too. They'll fucking freak."

I look down at her shirt and nod.

"We can go to my place if you want. Just to get you cleaned up," I say for clarification. "I live a few blocks away."

She thinks for a minute, but once she weighs her options, she nods. As we walk to the car, she hands me the keys.

We pull up to my building a few moments later, and I suddenly become very aware of the fact that she's about to see my one-room, walk-up bachelor pad that could probably use a bottle of bleach—or two. I'm not the messiest guy around—the Army taught me a thing or two about organization—but I'm sure a good cleaning couldn't hurt. But as she gets out of the car and looks up at the building, I know it's too late to turn back now.

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