Completely Consumed (Addicted To You, Book Eight) by Lucy Covington Read Free Book Online Page A

more.
    But somehow, I knew I’d fuck it up.

    ***
    When I arrived at the gym, Z was standing at the door to greet me. He wasn’t his normal friendly self. Just past his shoulder, I could see the other guys milling around, talking and laughing, but the conversation was quieter than usual. Something was off.
    “Hey,” I said, giving Z a pound.
    He barely touched knuckles with me. His eyes were heavy lidded, unmoving.
    “Get inside,” he said, his voice deep and without the normal friendly tone I was used to.
    “What’s going on?” I asked. “Quarry on the rampage?”
    He didn’t smile. “Don’t know. I just know that motherfucker’s be straggling in late. Doesn’t anyone understand that 911 means emergency? Not take your sweet fucking time? And it don’t mean hang out and laugh like it’s nap time and we’re all in kindergarten?”
    The rest of the guys inside heard Z raise his voice, and they quieted down.
    I brushed past him, not exactly liking this new side of Z that I was seeing tonight.
    Jimbo and Malcolm were standing next to each other, and I joined them.
    “Hey,” Jimbo said, his normal humor noticeably absent.
    “What’s going on?” I asked, keeping my voice low.
    Malcolm shrugged. “Not sure, but people seem weird and edgy.”
    Jimbo glanced at Z. “I’m starting to get sick of this shit. It never fucking ends around here.”
    I nodded slightly, but didn’t say anything. There were too many people around, too many possible eavesdroppers to voice my agreement with his sentiment.
    Quarry finally emerged from the locker rooms. He motioned to Z. “Hey, lock it up.”
    “Not everyone’s here yet,” Z replied.
    Quarry’s eyes grew cold. “That’s fine. I know who didn’t show. They’ll deal with me later.”
    The door shut, but Z didn’t come inside. It seemed as though he was going to stand guard out front or something.
    I looked around the room. Besides me, there were only about ten or eleven guys.
    The wider group that came in and sparred and worked out at The Slaughterhouse weren’t here—whether it was because they hadn’t showed, or hadn’t been invited.
    Either way, it just so happened that the guys that had shown up, were all the people I would have considered to be part of the inner circle. This was the core group that Quarry kept close to him.
    I was the only guy who was new enough to not be considered an insider. I wasn’t truly part of The Slaughterhouse family yet.
    Quarry was wearing jeans and a white t-shirt. He looked somehow ruffled, unsteady in a way that I wasn’t used to. He was smiling a little bit, which was unusual.
    Quarry didn’t smile very much.
    “Thanks for coming here on short notice,” he said, looking at each of us in turn.
    When his eyes met mine briefly, I went cold. It was like being looked at by a Great White Shark. I was glad when he moved on to the next person.
    Everyone murmured something about being happy to come, even though I’m sure nobody really was.
    “Here’s the thing, guys,” Quarry said. He walked closer to us, drawing us into him like a football huddle. “I heard some pretty strange news and I wanted to just have a little powwow with the team about it.” He looked down and smiled to himself. “I can hardly believe it, actually. But I’m pretty sure it’s true.” Quarry looked up again. “I got word back that there have been some government agents asking questions about me and specifically the Slaughterhouse organization.”
    Everyone started talking at once.
    “What kind of questions?” someone asked.
    Quarry held up his hands for quiet. He was still smiling. “Listen, I’m not trying to alarm anybody. I don’t think it’s a big deal at all. The thing is, you all know I have an open door policy. Anybody who wants to can come right on in and just sit down and talk to me. So my question is, why hasn’t anybody come and talked to me yet?”
    “Who have they talked to?” I said. Asking the question nearly made me