Blow(112)

Kim likes to believe in soul mates, kindred spirits, true friends, and happily-ever-afters. She loves to drink champagne and listen to music, and hopes to always stay young at heart.





CONNECT WITH KIM


Website

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram





Thank you for purchasing and reading this book. If you enjoyed it, please leave a short review on the site where you purchased it, or on any other book-related sites such as Goodreads or your favorite review forum. Readers rely on reviews, as do authors.





AND NOW: A First Look Inside Crush





Chapter 1


DAY 8 CONTINUED


LOGAN

Say you wanted someone eliminated . . .

Killed.

It doesn’t matter who—your mother, your lover, your enemy.

There are guys out there who will do it for you.

It’s a fact.

Not someone from the Mob.

Not someone connected to the Mob.

Not anyone you know.

A hit man.

I’ve heard of ways to contact one. Someone who knows someone who knows someone.

Someone from the old neighborhood. Someone with prison tats. Someone who maybe wears a do-rag. Who the f*ck cares—he could look like Motely Crue. Hell, on the other hand, he could be a business man wearing a two thousand dollar suit.

I really don’t give a shit.

What he looks like is irrelevant. It’s what he does that matters.

Sure, there’s a steep monetary price attached to the deed. That’s not what worries me.

I’d give every cent I had if it meant she’d be safe.

It’s what it would really cost me—how big a piece of my soul it would take—that keeps me from making that call.

I reread the note, “That E wasn’t meant for Emily.”

One thing was clear . . .

He knows about Elle and me.

Tommy Flannigan, my enemy, my foe, the mob boss’s son, the one I have been forbidden to make contact with, knows I have someone in my life that I care about. He might even know I love her. And she’s not his sister. She’s not Emily. Because I defied him, because I dared to move on, I know he’ll taunt me, try to break me, try to drive me out of my mind.

For over a decade he’s loomed over me.

He threatened me, mutilated a girl I’d dated, and just last week harmed one he thought was Elle. He was into drugs as a user as well as a cutthroat player in the Blue Hill Gang. He was always crazy, but lately he’d been breaking all the rules. Nothing was safe from him anymore—it was like he had nothing left to lose these days.

Breaking the treaty wasn’t a surprise.

The thing he doesn’t get is I’m no longer fearful. As of right this minute, the rules of the street no longer apply to me. There is too much at stake for me to think about what could happen if I went up against the Blue Hill Gang. I have to think about what has to happen in order to keep her safe. And that’s one thing, and one thing only.

Tommy’s threat has to be eliminated.

Somehow.

Someway.

But murder for hire would have to wait.

I looked over into Elle’s eyes.

Paralyzed.

Frozen in place.

Wide.

Scared.

Still beautiful.

I haven’t even known her for two weeks, but she’s a part of me. I can’t—no, I won’t—let anything happen to her.

“Logan,” she whispered quietly.

Escaping from my thoughts, I wanted to say something. Something profound. Something that would make sense. Something that would make everything okay. But there was nothing.

My eyes searched her face. As soon as they did, I saw the once glimmering green in her eyes was now dull, and her lips were quivering.

It made my chest tighten.

But it was when I saw the apprehension in her body language, the hairs on her arm rise, the unsteady rise and fall of her breathing—the fear she didn’t want me to see, the fear she was trying to hide from me—that I knew what I had to do.

I had to find him.

Now.

I was going to settle the score with Tommy Flannigan once and for all.

Whatever the outcome.

The note crumpled in my fist and I let it drop to the floor. Tugging my shirt on, I once again looked over at her. “Stay here, lock the door, and don’t let anyone in. I mean it, not anyone except me. I don’t care who they say they are.”

“Where are you going?” Fear laced her voice.

“To find Tommy.”

“But the news, they said members of the Flannigan family had been arrested. Maybe he’s already in custody.”

I looked down at the note on the floor. I had a gut feeling he wasn’t. This wasn’t something he’d send someone else to do. This was something he’d take too much pleasure in doing himself. “Maybe he is,” I said to help calm her nerves, “But someone arranged to deliver that note to this room, and I’m going to find who it was.”

“Logan, no.” She reached for me as I slid my feet into my shoes.

I had to shrug away from her.

I had to do this.

On my way to the door, I stopped for just a single moment to look at her. In that moment there was nothing more I wanted than to feel her arms around me, press my body to hers, look into her eyes and tell her we were going to be just fine.