Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 127461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
“Of course they did. You’re an outsider. Not Russian. What did you think was going to happen? Do you have the money to give back? Can you even name the other men?”
She was burning up. Her skin itched. Her skull hurt. She could barely look at him. Her throat felt tight and swollen. She backed another couple of steps away. Wraith felt just as hot and out of sorts as she was.
Neither wanted to deal with Theo. He’d taken the money for his own personal gain, most likely for drugs. Whatever he’d been using it for had made his leopard sick.
Theo shook his head. “I don’t have my share let alone their shares. But I have an idea of how we can get it.”
Maya wished it were that simple. “You don’t seem to understand what you did, Theo. You stole from the bratva. That’s a death sentence. Not just a death sentence. Even if you return the money, they will torture and kill you as an example to everyone else. No one steals from them and gets away with it. If you have a family, they will kill your entire family.”
Theo shook his head, a sly look stealing over his face. “Not this time. I have you.”
“What does that mean?”
Without thinking, she had taken another step back, which put her solidly into the other room. Theo reached out and slammed the door closed. She heard a bolt slide into place. For a moment she stared at Theo through the thick glass window in the door as he pointed to a grille on the left side.
“I’m holding an online auction to make the money back.” His voice sounded just a little tinny. “It occurred to me the minute I saw you in New Orleans and realized you still weren’t with anyone. You haven’t been claimed. We can say your leopard is in her first life cycle. We could repeat this scam over and over and make so much money. The bidding for you is so high already it’s unbelievable.”
The moment she heard the words “first life cycle” and “haven’t been claimed,” alarm bells went off. She was scorching hot. Burning up. Her skin felt too tight. She couldn’t think clearly. She was moody. Edgy. What did that add up to? She was leopard. A female shifter.
Maya and Wraith were unusual in their world because they’d known each other since Maya was an infant. Females were rarely aware of their leopard until they entered what was known as the Han Vol Dan. The leopard and the human came together in the same cycle, ovulating together. There were many times it never happened, and the leopard didn’t rise or emerge. Wraith had made herself known to Maya almost immediately, and they’d relied on each other.
“We’re going into heat,” Maya whispered to Wraith. “That’s what’s happening.” A part of her wanted to laugh. “It’s rather ironic that Theo is betraying us, believing he’s scamming the buyers by selling us to the highest bidder because he thinks we aren’t in heat.”
He is like all the others. A betrayer.
“I should never have put you in this position,” Maya apologized to her leopard. She wiped the sweat from her face, took her laptop from the small backpack and opened it. She had her own hot spot. “Let’s see if we can find the money Theo and his friends stole. I don’t believe for one minute his altruistic stealing-to-help-human-trafficking-victims story.”
Even if Theo or his friends tried to hack into her computer, it would be impossible. She had built in too many firewalls for them to work through, all false and all with viruses in them. By the time they realized what was happening, it would be too late.
Theo was on his laptop, looking smug. She could have told him his insane plan wasn’t going to work. He had no idea who he had stolen from or what those consequences were going to be. He couldn’t possibly conceive of what kind of hell was coming his way.
Maya took her time, researching the territory first. Little was known about it. It had been kept secret for many years. Hidden away, the lair and town had grown quite wealthy, being in the perfect location to run arms, drugs and humans by land, sea and even air without anyone suspecting. The pakhan had died two months earlier and Gorya Amurov had replaced him.
“Amurov,” Maya whispered aloud. She pressed her hand over her heart. “That’s bad, Wraith. The worst. They torture and kill for the slightest infraction. They would take any money Theo managed to recoup, then torture and kill him just to show others what happens if they’re crossed.”
Saves us the trouble of killing him, Wraith said. Did you find the money?
“He gambled his share away. He has a drug dealer. Quite a bit was spent there. It’s no wonder his leopard is ill. He deserves to die.”