Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 115964 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 580(@200wpm)___ 464(@250wpm)___ 387(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115964 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 580(@200wpm)___ 464(@250wpm)___ 387(@300wpm)
I was stricken.
That—no…
He laughed. “She’s missing. I’ll accept that, which I’m sure will shock Clay and his employer, but there is a part of me that loves her. Other than my empire, mi familia is the only thing that’s important. The other part of me wants her dead when I’m dead, but we’ll work with the good part today. Hmm?” He walked to the SUV’s driver’s side. “Tell Clay I’ll be in touch, or tell Roman Marakov I’ll be in touch when you see him yourself.” Another smile, one that had me tasting bile. “Has Clay told you that his boss considers you his personal asset? If he hasn’t, you can bring that up as well, too.”
He left and I stood there, remembering…
“...mi familia is the only thing that’s important…”
“Sisters, sweetie. She’s your friend that’ll never leave. You’d like a new friend, wouldn’t you? Family is the only thing that’s important.”
It was all coming back to me. All at once. All together.
The memories. They were haunting me, pressing to get out.
My brain was swelling.
They wanted out, out, out.
I couldn’t—my head. It was like a chainsaw was being used on it.
My heart was thumping, so hard, so loud, so strong.
I couldn’t do anything.
Then, arms picked me up and I heard Raize say, “What’s wrong? What’s wrong?”
“This is your new room, sweetheart.”
She opened the door and inside were two beds. A little girl was sitting on one of them, a doll in her hand.
She looked up…
Thump.
...the girl got off the bed and walked toward me.
She held her hand out. “My name is—”
Thump.
“—my name is Ashley. What’s yours?”
64
Raize
Ash was in Roman’s basement, curled up in a corner of a couch, a blanket around her, and having that same pale color she’d been having since I found out Marco could’ve killed her. She was holding a mug of hot tea, her request, and she was staring at no one, talking to no one.
Gus was on her lap, curled in, his head on her stomach and looking up for pets.
Ash wasn’t having it.
After that day, after hearing her screams, a sound that I will never get out of my head, Gus hadn’t moved from her side. He would piss on the floor if she wouldn’t go with him outside. It was that kind of relationship happening right now.
Roman came into the room, seeing Ash, me, and choosing to come to me first.
Good choice.
He stood at my side, looking around the rest of the room. He had his usual men positioned throughout his house, but he’d asked his usual personal blockade of guards to let him have the basement for this event.
He lingered on Gus, whose tail was thumping into Roman’s black leather couch, but moved and took in Jake, Cavers, and Abram, all who were lounging throughout the room.
“This is so very not smart.”
I grunted. That was the most obvious statement of the century.
I gave him a look. “It’s her stipulation. She’s going to talk. This has nothing to do with you or me, but she’s gotta tell someone. She’s going insane.”
“Plan a mafia coup, swoop in to surprise everyone, and what? Invite a detective to your house to let him see that you’re here. This wasn’t in my plan, Raize,” he clipped out.
“You want her to work for you, this is her demand. Her and I have talked and I am not going to let you use her if she decides against it. This was her request. She’s doing it here, where you are, and it’s two fold. You know about it. You know what’s being said. It won’t look like we’re snitching and again, you know what exactly it’s all going to be about. You’re my employer. If we went without you knowing, we both know how that would’ve looked. You control the environment. You control what detective it is. You’re here and this works for you, too. You want to be somewhat legitimate, so you’re going to deal with the authorities. This is a good start to that relationship.”
He grunted, nodding to himself. “Right, because you haven’t been a pain in my ass lately at all. I’m really controlling a whole lot.”
Ash glanced our way, her eyes narrowing and no doubt, just seeing how we were standing. Both with our backs to the walls. Any firearms were supposed to be hidden, not that the Boston detective, whichever one walked through those doors, wouldn’t know they were there. They would know, but after Ash told me enough that she needed to talk about, we both put together this plan.
Talking to the police at all was considered snitching. It didn’t matter that it had nothing to do with anything illegal that we might’ve done in the last six months. But she was going to come forward, and I worked for the biggest Russian mafia boss on the East Coast. Everything was put in a way that Roman would look like the good guy. Statements were going to be kept to what Ash had to say, which had nothing to do with anything current. She was firm on that.