Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 72325 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72325 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
I stood up, abandoning my food, and walked over to him. I hugged him from behind, leaning down to talk to him. “You did the only thing you could do,” I said. “And we all know that.” I shot a look at the other guys. “You had to get Gambini’s approval or none of us stood a chance.”
“Yeah, but now we have to be able to do what we—what Rock—said we’d do,” Julian said. “And I don’t know how we’d do that even if we wanted to. We don’t have any men who work in distribution. We don’t know anything about that side of the business. We don’t even know where to start.”
“Gambini’s all about maintaining some kind of order on the streets,” Slater added. “When Roselli’s out of the picture, his distributors will lose their jobs. The drug trade business in Brooklyn will be up for grabs. Without a new player in place immediately, things are going to get nasty out there. Gambini wants us to be that new player, but we’ve never been involved in the drug trade. All we ever did was collect from Roselli’s mules.”
That was sobering. There was so much about this that I didn’t understand. But there was one thing I did know. “Blaming Rock’s not going to do any good. He’s doing all of this for us.”
“He’s doing all of this for you,” Julian said, but he didn’t sound resentful.
Rocco nodded and then reached back, cupping the back of my head. He pulled me in for a quick kiss.
My heart warmed even as my mind was still in worry-mode. These men were risking everything for me, and there wasn’t even anything I could do to help. I didn’t know their world, but I did know the real world. And in the real world, money ruled.
That’s what it was all about.
That’s why the brother I’d never even met wished to have me killed. So he could spend his millions, without worrying about his late father’s illegitimate child.
I chose my words carefully. “The problem isn’t really the drug operation, is it? It’s the money it represents, right?”
Slater nodded, looking at me thoughtfully. “I guess you could say that.”
“Roselli’s drugs…” I started, eyeing the guys one at a time. “What does he sell exactly?”
“Crystal meth,” Rocco answered. “He’s got a bunch of chemists manufacturing it near Rochester. I’ve been to that place; it’s deep in the woods. The front is perfect. That lab is in the basement of an old sawmill.”
“What if, uh…” I paused, thinking of how to phrase my next sentence. “What if something were to happen to that lab? Not the people working in it. Just the lab.”
“What are you saying?” Julian asked.
“Destroy it,” I heard myself say in a clear, assertive voice. For the first time ever, I wondered if I did have something of my biological father in me after all. “Just hear me out here. The destruction of that lab will put a dent in Roselli’s cash flow, but without any lab, there’ll be nothing for rival crews to take over.”
“Is it just me, or is she starting to sound like a crime boss?” Slater said.
“Roselli knows we’re on the run and laying low,” Julian said, thinking out loud. “He wouldn’t expect us to make a move against him.”
“He’ll figure out it was us,” Rocco said glumly.
“What’s he going to do, though,” Julian said. “Kill us twice?”
“Or twice as painfully,” Slater said. Then he caught sight of my face, which I could feel the blood draining out of, and hastily said, “Just kidding.”
Yeah, right.
This was a whole new world for me. A disturbing, dark, horrifying world. It wasn’t my choice to be in it. It sure as hell hadn’t been my mom’s choice. She’d wanted to keep me away from it, even if it meant lying to me.
But the simple fact of the matter was that I was in it, and so were these men. We were in it together, in fact. So it was time to stop being a useless accessory. A pleasant distraction for whichever man was in charge of guarding me that day.
We were in this together, and we were in for the fight of our lives. So it was time for me to do my part.
I’d never gone down without a fight, and I wasn’t about to start now.
29
MAGGIE
Despite the fact that it was my idea, I was a nervous wreck the day the men set out to destroy the drug lab. There was just so much that could go wrong. They could get hurt. They could be killed. For some reason, I kept having visions of them being trapped behind a locked door somewhere, banging on it frantically while fire and lethal fumes moved closer and closer.
It was an image I couldn’t get out of my mind.