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I was h to admit that I wanted all parts of her back, and there was no pushing down the bitter regret at the fact that I was the reason she was gone in the first place

I pushed off the couch and loweredframe toward the floor so I could carefully put Noe’s stuff back where it belonged She didn’t have much, and that pissed ain It loved being off the leash and was happy to snap and pop all around et whatever she wanted, but she wasn’t a user like that She wasn’t part of the proble in the corrupted parts of the city

There was a sharp knock on my front door, and before I could fully turnopen, and a dark-haired man in a sharply tailored suit strolled in like he owned the place On his heels was a large African American man, also in an expensive suit, and another man I had never met but had heard plenty about He was in a suit, as well, but unlike the other two men, his was flashy, pin-striped, and accented with a patterned silk tie, gold pocket watch, and bling on his fingers that looked like it cost more than the down payment on my townhouse

The first two men may have beenattention, but there was no way the third guy could ever pass for anything but what he waseven with the beard that covered his jaw He was a hustler A player A dealuy was a criminal and proud of it He wore that fact with pride and aplos by doing bad shit--and he didn’t care who knew it He was the opposite side of the spectrum of what the streets could do to a person in the Point Crime and corruption moved this man to the top tiers of power and respect, and he thrived in the chaos He was the ene bad

I pulled offthem on the bottom of my t-shirt I blinked several tiht you were dead Heard you got shanked in prison when you refused to cooperate with the feds"

Benny Truman used to be the ht hand to the old crime boss who ruled the Point with a heavy hand and a thirst for blood There wasn’t anything Benny wouldn’t do as long as money was the primary motivator That blind loyalty made him just as ruthless, cruel, and callous as the e When the old crime boss was taken out of play, his entire creent doith him Everyone knew Benny wouldn’t sell out anyone, even if it meant a lifetime spent locked up, but word on the street was that someone on the inside wanted to , fat rieved his loss when he was declared dead, and the tworoom didn’t seerave

"I’htly so I could see the long, thin scar that ran across the entire width of his neck It looked like someone had tried to take his cocky head clear off

Two minutes in his co about him thatenough and intih that it was usually the other way around I was the one who ive a shit about it

I rubbed a hand over hed "I wouldn’t tell Bax that He’ll see it as a challenge"

Nassir Gates, my de facto boss, the man who now called the shots in the Point, lifted his hand and gave his dark head a little shake His voice had the faint trace of an accent The more time I spent around him and the inal hoood with dialects Hell, I was good with a lot of useless shit that would put a price on e Nassir never mentioned where he was from, and I never asked, but he slipped into Arabic when he was frustrated or annoyed, which so when it was directed at you

"Bax doesn’t need to know about this little visit Neither does Race That won’t end wellfor any of us"

Chuck, Nassir’s head of security and quite possibly his only friend, chuckled from where he had sprawled on my sofa "Personally, I’d like to see just how creative our boy would get if we let him loose on you, Ben"

Bax was our boy All of ours, even though he was only tied directly to Race Nassir tolerated him since he was Race’s best friend, Chuck considered hiuy a friend We’d gotten tight when the deep muck of the Point sucked me in, and Bax was the only one who bothered to warn uys our size sink faster He was full of good advice when it ca with the shit the Point could throw, and sometimes he seemed just as eirl, his car, his city, and nottoward his older brother and the cop’s growing family, but even that was hit or miss

Benny flipped Chuck off and watched er None of the guys filling up my tastefully decorated space were exactly petite, but I had at least a couple of inches and fifty pounds on all of them Nassir had askedI always told hie and loathing I was feeling, I was starting to reconsider bloodshed as an outlet My recently awakened anger was a powerful thing and I had no idea what to do with it

"You don’t look like a ghost, even if that’s what you are People are going to notice you and ill get back to Bax and Race" Logic I couldn’t escape it even when I wanted to It was coiled around ht be the shot callers in the Point, but Shane Baxter--Bax, to those in the knoas the Point All the others s didn’t happen unless Bax let them The Point was all he knew, and the worst part of the city ran through his blood If he didn’t want Benny back, then Benny wouldn’t be back, and whatever plan Nassir had would go up in a puff of smoke, even if it meant that Noe died

"Race and Bax are with their wo happened between the giant and the teenagersoer was Race’s fiancée’s little sister, Karsen The giant was Noah Booker, another bruiser on Nassir’s payroll There had been so on for years between the ex-con and the quiet, shy teenager Race hated it; everyone else aiting cautiously to see ould happen when the girl hit legal age

But soraduation, and Karsen Carter decided to go out-of-state for college afterthat she would never leave the Point She’d been gone for a couple months and noas her first winter break I wasn’t surprised her fahtly "If you askaway and that only makes a predator want to chase, but that’s neither here nor there We have a s about Benny’s longevity" Nassir didn’t ic, especially when it worked in his favor His tone was even and steady when he explained why Benny was allowed in the last place he should be

I narrowed evity I care about is Noe’s It’s been teeks, Gates Fourteen fucking days I don’t have to tell you what kind of hell she could have endured in that time if she’s still alive" I already knew that Goddard liked to hurt wo hiht back If he did that to Noe, if he let his rich goons defile and degrade her, I was going to take him apart with my bare hands But I needed to knohere she was first, before I could give the fury that was pulsing through e every day, Stark That is why I found Benny" His gold eyes narrowed and his htened into a line of annoyance as he muttered, "Men who look like Jonathan Goddard, who bleed blue blood and come from where he comes from, do not do business with men who look like me and come from where I come from There are some doors that even a shitload of dirty et inside that gilded cage, but Benny, he’s been sliding into places he doesn’t belong for a very long time"

I felt my eyes widen as I turned to the quiet, bearded htfully I could tell he wasn’t sure what to make of me, but I didn’t have time to worry about it No one was ever really sure if I was friend or foe That’s what happened when you were dead on the inside, when you were robotic and stiff The best parts of me were dead and buried withon the circumstances Not that the tere much different I treated pretty much everyone exactly the same Like they were an annoyance and a distraction But I wanted to treat Noe differently