Page 78 of Pitiful Lies

I nod.

“Yeah, you’re good,” he says it with pride this time. “So good and dirty, aren’t you, Little Doll?”

I bite my lip. He grips my neck, pulling on my hair as he tugs me closer.

“Let’s get you home and clean so I can dirty you all up again. Want that? Tell me.”

Excitement hums in my veins. I swallow, my eyes never leaving his as I open my lips to respond.

“Yeah, Angel, I want that.”

It’s the truth. I do.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR-ANGEL

Ifidget with my phone, glancing at the screen for updates.

Giselle is at her parent’s apartment, checking in on Resa today. Her sister called and told her she and her boyfriend had the flu or some shit.

Koukla is such a fucking sweetheart, she made a big pot of soup herself and insisted on bringing it over.

Warmth rushes through me as I picture her taking care of me like that.

It’s weird. I never had that. But I want it.

I am so fucking obsessed with this woman.

Still, I worry. I was supposed to go with her, but then I got called in for a meeting. I wanted to tell her no. But that would be crazy.

I might be obsessed with the woman, but I’m not crazy. So, instead of me, she took six heavily armed bodyguards with her. My top guys.

It’s the only way I can bear to let her out of my sight. Especially after the news I get at this meeting.

“The aftermath of taking Sanchez down is turning into a problem, Boss,” Luc says.

“How so?” Nico asks.

“Small time players thinking about taking over. They don’t seem to realize it’s ours now,” Luc says.

He’s talking about Ghost. It’s the codename for a Chinese gangster who runs everything from drugs, guns, gambling, and girls from Connecticut to New York City.

He doesn’t have a foothold in Jersey, but he wants one. Mainly, he wants our ports.

Like everybody fucking else.

Criminal organizations like his are like cockroaches around here. You stomp on one, you got a thousand more waiting in the wings.

Luc starts citing off eyewitness reports from our eyes in the field. His guys are pushing their boundaries, taking over turf that ain’t theirs.

The Vipers don’t deal in petty shit anymore. And what we allow, we allow because we have the final say.

We don’t allow trafficking of any kind in our city. As for drugs, well, the best we can do is keep dealers out of schools and parks.

People are gonna do what they want. But some shit is pure poison, and we keep that out of our city.

Every day it seems drug laws are changing. I don’t do them myself. But I don’t judge others.

The Vipers might not be boy scouts, but we are a damn sight better than other motherfuckers out there. Those guys don’t care if their junk is killing people.

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