it.
"I won't ever lie to you again," I said. "I promise you...both of you. But I'm scared. I can't change that."
For a moment or two, Mark was silent and then he smiled.
"I know," he said. "Johnny and I didn't get to be as successful as this without knowing when people are scared. But now you're one of us, so there aren't any secrets and there aren't any lies. That's how we survive."
"Yes, sir."
"Not only that," he continued, "but we like our people to achieve their best potential and we'll do anything we can to help them. In business, as in life, loyalty is all."
"Yes, sir, but what if they aren't able to fulfill their potential? What then?"
Mark frowned, and I wondered if maybe I should have left the question unasked, especially as visions of the bodies of those failed potential achievers were even now floating lifeless down the river in my head or lying trussed up in some abandoned garage somewhere, awaiting discovery by a passing dog-walker.
I should stop watching all those TV crime dramas, but once a thriller junkie, always a thriller junkie, I supposed.
"Listen to me, won't you?" Mark said with a sigh and gripping my face even more firmly. "If that happens, then you'll have tried. But not trying isn't an option."
"Okay," I managed to say, with some difficulty, as Mark's hold on me forced my mouth into a shape it wasn't used to in normal conversation. "Okay, so all you're asking me to do is go back and look at something I wasn't very good at compared to my father, chat about it to my parents and never lie to you about things which make me shit-scared again, sir."
Johnny chuckled. "I think that's about the size of it."
"Good-oh," I replied, my lips returning to their usual shape as Mark released me, presumably having got whatever he'd been waiting for. "In that case, I can't wait. Roll on tomorrow."
"That's our boy," Mark said. "We knew you wouldn't let us down."
I could only admire his confidence in me. Whether my parents would say the same was, of course, an entirely different affair. One thing about the Delaneys was certain: being at home with them was never going to be dull.
Anne Brooke
Anne Brooke's fiction has been shortlisted for the Harry Bowling Novel Award, the Royal Literary Fund Awards, and the Asham Award for Women Writers. She has also twice been the winner of the DSJT Charitable Trust Open Poetry Competition. She loves reading dark and quirky crime novels and has a secret passion for theatre-going and chocolate. Preferably at the same time. She once took a balloon flight in Egypt but spent most of the time screaming, and she hopes she never has to do it again.
To learn more about Anne and her writing, please visit her website at: http://www.annebrooke.com
* * * *
Don't miss The Delaneys And Me, by Anne Brooke,
available at AmberAllure.com!
When Liam makes a scene in the middle of a restaurant after his boyfriend, Brandon, dumps him, he knows Brandon's cousins, the Delaney twins, will be after him. The Delaneys head up the local gangster scene and are not to be messed with. Liam knows their retribution is imminent, especially since, in the heat of the moment, he threatened to take what he knows (and, really, he doesn't know much) to the police.
It's a recipe for disaster.
But when the Delaneys confront Liam, they give him a choice between being shot or having sex with both of them, and Liam senses that his evening might turn out to be rather more interesting than originally expected...
Amber Quill Press, LLC
Print and Electronic Books
Romance
Action/Adventure
Fantasy/Paranormal/SciFi
Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Historical/GLBT
Erotica...& more!
http://www.AmberQuill.com
http://www.AmberHeat.com
http://www.AmberAllure.com
"I won't ever lie to you again," I said. "I promise you...both of you. But I'm scared. I can't change that."
For a moment or two, Mark was silent and then he smiled.
"I know," he said. "Johnny and I didn't get to be as successful as this without knowing when people are scared. But now you're one of us, so there aren't any secrets and there aren't any lies. That's how we survive."
"Yes, sir."
"Not only that," he continued, "but we like our people to achieve their best potential and we'll do anything we can to help them. In business, as in life, loyalty is all."
"Yes, sir, but what if they aren't able to fulfill their potential? What then?"
Mark frowned, and I wondered if maybe I should have left the question unasked, especially as visions of the bodies of those failed potential achievers were even now floating lifeless down the river in my head or lying trussed up in some abandoned garage somewhere, awaiting discovery by a passing dog-walker.
I should stop watching all those TV crime dramas, but once a thriller junkie, always a thriller junkie, I supposed.
"Listen to me, won't you?" Mark said with a sigh and gripping my face even more firmly. "If that happens, then you'll have tried. But not trying isn't an option."
"Okay," I managed to say, with some difficulty, as Mark's hold on me forced my mouth into a shape it wasn't used to in normal conversation. "Okay, so all you're asking me to do is go back and look at something I wasn't very good at compared to my father, chat about it to my parents and never lie to you about things which make me shit-scared again, sir."
Johnny chuckled. "I think that's about the size of it."
"Good-oh," I replied, my lips returning to their usual shape as Mark released me, presumably having got whatever he'd been waiting for. "In that case, I can't wait. Roll on tomorrow."
"That's our boy," Mark said. "We knew you wouldn't let us down."
I could only admire his confidence in me. Whether my parents would say the same was, of course, an entirely different affair. One thing about the Delaneys was certain: being at home with them was never going to be dull.
Anne Brooke
Anne Brooke's fiction has been shortlisted for the Harry Bowling Novel Award, the Royal Literary Fund Awards, and the Asham Award for Women Writers. She has also twice been the winner of the DSJT Charitable Trust Open Poetry Competition. She loves reading dark and quirky crime novels and has a secret passion for theatre-going and chocolate. Preferably at the same time. She once took a balloon flight in Egypt but spent most of the time screaming, and she hopes she never has to do it again.
To learn more about Anne and her writing, please visit her website at: http://www.annebrooke.com
* * * *
Don't miss The Delaneys And Me, by Anne Brooke,
available at AmberAllure.com!
When Liam makes a scene in the middle of a restaurant after his boyfriend, Brandon, dumps him, he knows Brandon's cousins, the Delaney twins, will be after him. The Delaneys head up the local gangster scene and are not to be messed with. Liam knows their retribution is imminent, especially since, in the heat of the moment, he threatened to take what he knows (and, really, he doesn't know much) to the police.
It's a recipe for disaster.
But when the Delaneys confront Liam, they give him a choice between being shot or having sex with both of them, and Liam senses that his evening might turn out to be rather more interesting than originally expected...
Amber Quill Press, LLC
Print and Electronic Books
Romance
Action/Adventure
Fantasy/Paranormal/SciFi
Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Historical/GLBT
Erotica...& more!
http://www.AmberQuill.com
http://www.AmberHeat.com
http://www.AmberAllure.com
Similar Books
