Amassing Greed: The Deadliest Sin Series, #18

By Gwyn McNamee

I've committed every sin in the book.
Spent years killing and stealing and doing whatever it takes.
Anything to reach the top.
Damn the consequences to my soul.
I'll deal with those when I'm dead.
Now, my goal is within my reach.
So close, I can smell it.
Only one thing stands in my way.
The woman who also reawakened the heart I thought long-dead.
She's a complication I can't afford.
A problem to be eliminated.
But when the time comes to finally have it all...
It will mean losing something even more valuable.

***Amassing Greed is the eighteenth book in The Deadliest Sin Series about organized crime in Chicago. This series is best read in order, as the stories are chronological and each sin builds on the events of the previous one.***

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gwyn McNamee
• Release date: May 26, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201460259

Gwyn McNamee

Gwyn McNamee is an attorney, writer, wife, and mother (to one human baby and two fur babies). Originally from the Midwest, Gwyn relocated to her husband’s home town of Las Vegas in 2015 and is enjoying her respite from the cold and snow. Gwyn has been writing down her crazy stories and ideas for years and finally decided to share them with the world. She loves to write stories with a bit of suspense and action mingled with romance and heat. When she isn’t either writing or voraciously devouring any books she can get her hands on, Gwyn is busy adding to her tattoo collection, golfing, and stirring up trouble with her perfect mix of sweetness and sarcasm (usually while wearing heels). Gwyn is the author of The Hawke Family series, The Slip Series, The Deadliest Sin Series, The Inland Seas Series, The Supernatural Love Stories in the Absurd (written as her alter-ego, DP Payne), and several stand-alone novels.

Book preview

AMASSING GREED

AMASSING GREED

THE DEADLIEST SIN SERIES - BOOK 18

GWYN MCNAMEE

AMASSING GREED

© 2022 Gwyn McNamee

---

All rights reserved. Except as permitted by U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior permission of the author.

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, establishments, or organizations, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously to give a sense of authenticity. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

CONTENTS

Preface

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

About the Author

OTHER WORKS BY GWYN MCNAMEE

To everyone who has ever amassed something to satiate greed…

Greed is a fat demon with a small mouth and whatever you feed it is never enough.

- Janwillem van de Wetering

1

NICKI

Y ou just signed our death warrants. Galen’s dark, definitive tone sends goosebumps skittering across my arms.

No! I step toward him, daring to close the distance between us, even when he's practically vibrating with rage. If we leave things like this, then Galen is right. Cutter will come for me, and he’ll destroy anything and anyone in his path—including Galen. Call him back.

Maybe I can reason with him. Make him listen.

Galen slams his palm against the table that runs along the back of the couch and glares at me with green eyes hard enough to feel like they’re physically cutting me. It doesn't matter, Nicki. There's absolutely nothing either of us could say to him right now that will change what's going to happen.

You don't know that.

"I do. He squares his shoulders, his injury either no longer causing him pain, or he’s become so accustomed to it that he doesn’t even care or react to it anymore. I know your brother. I know what kind of man he is. Maybe you’ve been sheltered from the truth because of the distance between the two of you, but your brother is a cold-blooded killer. An assassin who works for a woman who will do whatever it takes to survive and thrive. I know these people; these are my people, my world, and I know Cutter."

Galen may think he knows Cutter. No doubt things have happened that have proven how lethal Cutter really is, but I know the boy he once was still exists somewhere deep inside him. My brother still exists somewhere in there. And he’s a completely different person from the one Galen is so afraid of. He was always protective of me, always watched over me and had my back, but he wasn’t irrational. He wasn’t a mindless machine.

What he saw and experienced and suffered during his time on Delta Force may have hardened him, may have made him push me away and shut him down emotionally, but he still cares. Enough that we can still do something about this to prevent bloodshed.

"We make him listen, Galen. Give me the phone."

Galen grits his teeth together. No.

Fine. Then I’ll go find wherever you stashed my phone myself.

I turn away from him and make it half a step toward the bedroom before he grasps my wrist and stops me dead in my tracks. He tugs at me, whirling me around to face him and tightening his grip hard enough to hurt.

"You are not calling him back. Even if I believed you could reason with him, he’s going to try to trace the call and figure out where we are.

He’ll figure it out anyway, and I'm not going to sit here and wait for bullets to fly. We have to do something. Have to explain.

Explain what? He drags me closer until his warm breath that carries the sweet smell of whiskey flutters over my face. "That I kidnapped you? That you've witnessed multiple shootings because of me? That I fucked you mercilessly multiple times and made you come so many times we lost count? Just what are you going to explain to him?"

The pure anger vibrating through his touch makes me swallow thickly. I know it isn't really directed at me but at the situation we find ourselves in. And he’s already proven he’ll never hurt me—at least, physically.

"I'll make him see reason. I'll make him understand."

He barks a sardonic laugh and shakes his head. Do you really think it will matter?

It’s a valid question given Cutter’s reputation and the fact that he’ll be in protective big brother mode on top of how volatile he normally is.

Maybe not but sitting here and doing nothing while we wait for the world to explode around us isn't a very fucking good plan, either. Is it? I raise an eyebrow defiantly, waiting for him to snap, to lose the control he’s barely clinging to. He would never hurt me. You’re the only one in danger here, so I’ll go see him alone.

His grip tightens on my wrist. Like hell, you will. You're not going anywhere.

You told me I could leave. That you would make sure I was safe. Set me up somewhere. Ensure I was protected. Even if we weren't together…

His grip loosens slightly, his face softening for a split second, showing the man I know is in there somewhere. Is that what you want?

I don't know, Galen, but if you stop me from leaving now, prevent me from going to my brother to try to stop him before he does something rash, I won't believe anything you've said to me. I can’t believe it if you won’t even let me go do this.

He releases my wrist, takes a step back, and shoves his hands through his hair, locking his gaze with mine. We stare at each other for what feels like an eternity. A battle of wills neither one of us wants to lose. One neither of us can afford to.

Galen’s right. Cutter is going to destroy us. Destroy him. He's going to come for me. We’re sitting ducks waiting for a trained hunter to flush us out from where we’re hiding in the reeds. It won’t take long for Preacher to find this place. No matter how good Galen thinks he is at hiding the location of the safehouse, Preacher is better. He can hack anything, find anything and anyone, and Cutter will use everything at his disposal to hunt down the man standing in front of me and pry me from his hold.

But Galen also isn’t going to just let me walk out of here and go to Cutter. He can’t, despite what he promised. It would be a concession, an admission that I have power over him, and he isn’t a man who gives up power. His fight with the Luna Cartel and the other families has proven that.

Still, the longer we have this staredown, the more I question every decision I’ve made since leaving Wisconsin.

Galen sighs,