Total pages in book: 38
Estimated words: 36206 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 181(@200wpm)___ 145(@250wpm)___ 121(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36206 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 181(@200wpm)___ 145(@250wpm)___ 121(@300wpm)
I bite my lip. Is it bad I got Royal’s dad arrested?
“The guys all had their pants down,” Enzo continues. “They ate some bad shit or something. It stunk so bad—”
“What the fuck?” Royal breathes.
Time to come clean. I duck my head and raise my hand, like a kindergartener in class. The men’s eyes cut to me.
“I may have found an expired box of off-brand Ex-Lax and made cupcakes with them,” I say.
“Fuck me,” Enzo says with awe.
“I also, um, put a bag of flour in the oven, and oil in the toaster. And turned them on. Oh, and dumped bleach and ammonia into the bathroom. In addition to, um…” My voice dies to a whisper as Enzo’s eyebrows creep upward. Royal’s face is scarily blank. “Tampering with the gas line.”
Enzo looks too overcome to swear. He opens his mouth, closes it, and crosses himself.
“Let me get this straight,” Royal says. “You took down a house full of thugs using nothing but a smoking oven and cupcake mix.”
“Excuse me, I bake everything from scratch.” I’d never made laxative cupcakes before, but when my ex dumped me, I might have looked up a recipe a time or two.
Royal’s brows are two angry slashes in his face. Is he mad at me?
“Tell me the truth, Leah,” Royal rumbles. “Did you take out my father and a bunch of his men with homemade cupcakes?”
“No one expects stealth poop muffins,” I whisper.
“Fuck me,” Enzo says in a tone of awe.
The blaring sirens are coming closer.
“Uh, boss?” Another mafioso hovers behind Enzo. “We should get out of here before the cops widen the net.”
“All right.” Royal waves a hand. “Move out.” He crushes me to his side. His lips burn a kiss to my browline. “I am taking you home.”
9
The girl in the mirror is glowing. She looks happy, even when she bites her lip. I’m back in a wedding dress—a different one from yesterday. The last one survived kidnapping and an escape from a gas explosion, but not Royal’s passion. In his haste to undress me, not even the veil remained unripped.
“Yoohoo, Leah?” Lula sticks her head into the dressing room. “You ready to get married? I’m supposed to take you to the wedding. Royal has a last minute meeting with the family.”
“Oh.” A meeting with the family? I'm not sure if that’s a good or bad thing.
“How are you doing?” Lula saunters in, looking fabulous in her bridesmaid dress.
“I’m good.” I finger the lace of the new wedding dress. An Alonuko original. I have no idea how Royal got it custom made overnight.
“You sure? No lingering effects from yesterday?”
I flush. I am a little sore, but not from being held hostage. Royal was pretty eager to show me how glad he was that I was back safe and sound. And I was just as eager to reciprocate.
But I woke up alone. Royal left a note and a chocolate muffin, but I’d have preferred him.
“I’ll take that as a no,” Lula says with a grin. “You might be interested to know, I just came from the hospital. Royal’s father and the rest of them need counsel.” I stiffen, but Lula doesn’t notice. She tosses her dark hair over shoulder. “I'm arranging plea bargains for all of them. The firemen and cops didn’t like all the drugs they found. They’re going to jail for a long time.”
I bite my lip. This is good news, but will Royal be happy that I got his dad in trouble?
“We don't even have to bring kidnapping charges unless you really want to,” Lula adds gently. “I figured you might want to stay out of it.”
“I do,” I say quickly.
“Then that’s settled. I have to say it's my first time dealing with a situation like this. Typically, when I do hospital visits, my client has been shot, not taken out by a cupcake. But one of the guys is in critical condition. The rest are severely dehydrated.”
“They ate a lot of cupcakes.”
“Yeah they told me that.” She snickers. “I had to fight to keep a straight face. I can’t believe your plan worked.”
I shrug. “No one suspected a thing. Pink cupcakes are the most innocuous thing on earth.”
Lula shakes her head. “I told Royal he’d better watch himself with you.”
“I only make laxative cupcakes in extreme situations.”
“Good to know. But it might be a while before I eat anything else you bake.”
“That’s fair.”
We share a grin.
“Seriously, Leah, you did good. A whole embarrassing branch of our family was taken out in one go. The three other crime families in Metropolis are watching. We needed a show of strength if we're going to take a seat at the table.”
Lula moves to the mirror and straightens her dress, unaware that she’s making my head spin.
“Royal’s father was the weakest link, but now Royal has proven that he can clean house. And he did it without having to kill his father. What did I tell you?” Lula holds up her manicured fingers. “Royal needed a bride. He needed a reason to get rid of his father. And he wanted you. I told you.” She taps her temple. “Royal has a brain like an engineer. He's always tinkering. Always fixing things in his head. His mind works like a clock.”