Page 153 of Exposed

Their days are fucking numbered.

It’s like a ticking time bomb I can’t force to ignite soon enough. And it’s not going to be easy.

It’s going to be fucking complicated. The plans are intricate. There are so many alternate scenarios, it’s like dropping myself in a big fucking maze that I’ll have to find my way out of blindfolded.

But I have confidence in every single one. If I didn’t, they wouldn’t be on the table as an option.

And very few of those scenarios involve the new sunshine of my life.

In fact, she’s only a part of one.

The very last one.

It’s a last resort which, in my mind, isn’t even an option. If we exhaust them all and it comes down to Goldie walking into The Pink, I’ll call the whole thing off myself.

The only way she’ll get close to Dex or Rand will be in court if she wants to witness their demise.

Even then.

My Goldie doesn’t need that kind of filth in her life. I’ve made it my mission to make sure she can focus on the good in the world. I’ll bulldoze through the bad to make that happen for her.

I was able to put off picking up a new load of money until yesterday. And after taking an ass beating the first time, they actually understood why I insisted on meeting at a neutral, public location.

It seems even cartel members can be flexible at times. Either that, or they really want their dirty cash in an offshore bank account stat.

What they don’t know is it’s money they’ll never get back since I plan to shut them down.

But that’s tomorrow.

I circle the block twice to make sure no one followed me before I pull into the driveway past Rocco’s car and straight into the garage.

It’s late. Cole is in town and having dinner with the crew and their wives. I’ve been sneaking into the office in a government carwith dark tinted windows, but that’s it. I go straight from one garage to another. I can’t chance being seen anywhere or with anyone before tomorrow, and Goldie really can’t afford that.

But after tomorrow…

Normal.

I’ve never wanted normal so much in my life.

I had to stay to get the latest updates from Ozzy before I came home. It’s Rocco’s day off—I’m sure he’s ready to get the hell out of here.

When I get into the house, I find him standing at the fridge with the door open studying its contents. If Rocco isn’t at work, he’s been here with Goldie. But she’s nowhere to be seen.

“I’m going to owe you big time after this is all over.”

He reaches into the fridge and pulls out a box of cold, leftover pizza. “You keep saying that.”

I toss my bag on the counter that’s clean of clutter, cups, and dishes. I’m no pig, but I think Goldie is so bored, she’s made it her mission to clean. “You name it. Where’s Goldie?”

He talks as he chews cold pizza. “She went to your room a bit ago. Said she had laundry to do and shit to put away. Though she didn’t say shit. I’ve never known anyone with her kind of discipline for the human language.”

I pick up a piece of cold pizza and bite off the end. “She’s not disciplined. It’s just who she is.”

“She’s something. Somehow she got me to talk about my parents, and I never fucking talk about my parents. I don’t even know how it started or how we got there. It’s like she cast some type of spell on me. All of a sudden I’m talking about shit I haven’t even told Landyn.”

I swallow and stare at the kid who had a shittier start to life than I did. Don and Trippy saved me when I was little.

I know enough about Rocco to know he had an entire lifetime of shit until he was almost nineteen and met Brax and Landyn.

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