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)
Gorya dropped to a crouch, annoyed that he hadn’t been given that information. They had eyes on the houses. It should have been relayed to him that Enrico had company. He was lucky that Rogue alerted, warning him before one of the other leopards sensed their presence. He kept his energy low and nonthreatening as he moved toward his target, which served him well in this instance.
It took a few more minutes to tap into the four leopards. One of the shifters present was Enrico’s younger brother, Samuele. The other three seemed to be close friends of the oldest Anwar son, now serving as his personal security. Only one of the three friends was tainted by drugs. Like Enrico’s, the male’s cat was disoriented and confused. The other two leopards were on edge. Samuele definitely hadn’t taken drugs, and his leopard was alert and, like the other two, restless and stressed.
It took some time for Gorya and Gedeon to calm the leopards and keep them from alerting their human shifter counterparts to their presence before they proceeded toward the playroom. Gorya could hear the sound of a cue stick hitting pool balls and then a voice.
“I don’t understand why Braum can’t take care of Amurov. His rep isn’t all that great,” Enrico’s distinct voice said. He had a slight accent, reminiscent of his father’s. “I’ve met him. Believe me, he isn’t very impressive. On a bad day, Giacenta could take him.”
The three others in the room laughed. “Your sister could take Braum. He’s a chickenshit, sitting back and getting everyone else to do his dirty work for him,” one commented.
* * *
• • •
It might be a good idea if you opened your eyes about now,” Maya told Giacenta. “We’ve found all the evidence we need in your little secret safe behind the wall. Not a very clever hiding place when you consider how the perfume and pills that were smuggled from New Orleans are in such short supply.”
Giacenta sat up with a curse, reaching for the gun she always kept next to her. It wasn’t there. She glared at Maya. “Who do you think you are, sneaking into my home and robbing me? Do you have any idea who I am?”
Maya ignored her and indicated to Meiling, who was in the shadows. “She’s ready for pickup. She’s a bit of a mess, but no one’s going to care what she looks like. I’d say she drank a little too much last night.”
“My security people are going to tear you to pieces. You have no idea what you’ve let yourself in for, you scrawny little nobody. Get the hell out of my house.” Giacenta’s voice rose to a high pitch. She leaned over and pressed a button over and over again.
“They’re all dead,” Maya informed her. “Every last one of them. Your brothers as well. Your father, like you, will be taken prisoner, but it would have been far kinder to just kill you.”
Giacenta hissed her displeasure and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Her hair fell in tangles around her face. “Who are you?” She tried to pour reason into her voice, but it still came out haughty.
“It doesn’t matter. Get up. You’re coming with us. If you give us trouble, one of the men will be happy to drag you out by your hair.”
“You wouldn’t dare touch me.” She folded her arms across her chest. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Suit yourself,” Maya said. “Meiling, tell Fyodor we need a garbage collector.”
* * *
• • •
Bartolo paced restlessly across the floor of his private den, glass of whiskey in hand. He didn’t like when things went wrong. Not even small things. This night had seemed to have some kind of weird domino effect, starting with phone towers going out and then the internet. Radios failing. He couldn’t raise his sons, either one of them. He’d tried his security people. He employed a shit ton of them just outside his house as well as roving walking patrols and patrols in vehicles. Two-man teams and four-man teams. Where the hell was everyone?
He kept his family and community safe. Their secrets were safe. They had places underground where they could interrogate prisoners. Anyone looking would expect it on the docks, not in their upscale neighborhood. Beneath the sprawling golf clubhouse were a gambling club to rival the best casinos and a party room where they brought the whores to entertain their guests any way their guests saw fit. If things went too far, there were always the ovens made just for the purpose of getting rid of shifter bodies or those they tortured and killed. He carried it all out under the nose of Marzio Caruso, the hot kingpin of Florida and the docks of Houston.
Marzio. His nemesis. He’d grown up with his father always pointing out how Marzio was such a success, ruling a huge territory in Florida. How everything Marzio touched seemed to turn to gold. No matter what he’d done, he’d always come up short in his father’s eyes.