Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 44321 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 222(@200wpm)___ 177(@250wpm)___ 148(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44321 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 222(@200wpm)___ 177(@250wpm)___ 148(@300wpm)
“What are you thinking?” Road asked.
“Faith stinks. She’s not had a shower in the two weeks she has been here. I think it’s only fair I allow her some … liberties.”
“You’re going to allow her to wash. Are you going to play her knight in shining armor?” Hail asked.
Brute raised his brow as he looked at his men. One by one, he saw the shock on their faces.
“You’re going to make her fall in love with you,” Road said.
“Sergey had his chance,” Brute said. “He has put his position above saving her, and now I’m going to make sure there is no way she can be saved. I’m going to fuck her up good and proper, so she is nothing like the girl he left.”
He slapped his hands on top of the table, dismissing everyone.
One by one, the men left. Some of the club members had smiles on their faces, others didn’t look impressed with Brute’s decision.
Road, like always, was the last one in the main church room. Only club members were allowed in the room.
“This is a bad idea,” Road said.
“It’s the perfect idea.”
“What are you going to do, get her addicted to drugs? Leave her at your mercy? You become no better than Golubev himself.”
Brute smiled. “Are you concerned for the young woman?”
“I don’t give a fuck about her, but I know this path you’re on. You don’t think I’ve felt it before? There’s a fine line between us turning into our enemies.”
“Road, I hate to break this to you, but we’re not good people. To get what we want, we have to fight dirty, and that means casualties. Faith is one of them, and she is going to suffer like one of them.”
Road smiled. “You and I both know that lumping them all together doesn’t work.”
“Where is this coming from? I thought you wanted to get at her, to hurt her, to make her scream?” Brute asked. “Don’t worry, I’m going to make her scream.”
Road shook his head. “No, I wanted to hurt her in the beginning when I believed her to be the enemy we’ve been fighting our whole lives. I want to take down the Golubev, not an innocent woman. If we do that, we’re no better than them.”
Brute chuckled. “And you think we have a moral high ground to stand on?” He took a step toward Road, then another one, closing the distance between them. “Have you forgotten where we came from?”
“I have forgotten nothing.”
“We have no moral high ground. We have absolutely nothing.”
“But isn’t that why you broke away? Why you started this club?” Road asked. “To be better than what we once were?”
Brute looked Road in the eye. He knew the kind of man he was. He wasn’t a good man. He never claimed to be a good man. There was a time when he would have been on Golubev’s side and even then, saving the bastard granddaughter was not worth the hit to his reputation. Even one that looked like his little girl.
Glaring at Road, he waited for the other man to back down.
“We’re not good men, Road. We are never going to be the voice of the righteous. Faith is going to suffer for the sins of men around her.”
“You’re going to hurt her.”
“I’m going to break her and then toss her to Golubev to pick up the pieces.”
Road shook his head but took a step back. “My way would be kindness.” With that, he turned on his heel and left.
Brute turned toward the table, and there at the center was the engraving he had made for the main table. It had the same ink that was on his chest—dead doves, one by one, fallen on the ground, and above them, tiny human skulls rising up.
The Evil Fallen Bratva had come from the Golubev. Their enemy was the Golubev Bratva, and he intended to watch them fall.
Faith was a means to an end. She was Golubev scum and she would fall as well.
Chapter Four
Faith took a deep breath and then released it. She felt so close to tears and she hated that feeling more than anything else in the world. The last thing she wanted to do was to cry. It would show more weakness than she ever had before.
It had been a long time since she had cried in front of anyone. The last time she had, she remembered the sharp sting of her mother’s slap. Faith couldn’t even remember what she’d been crying for, but Beverly hadn’t wanted to hear it, so she told her to shut up with a slap, and that if she didn’t stop, there would be more.
Faith remembered stopping, going to her room, and from that day forward, whenever she cried, she did so silently and without anyone to bear witness.
There was no time for tears. She didn’t know when Brute or someone else would come to drop off food. The times for meals were never the same.