Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 144908 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144908 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
Ambrielle recognized the stunned silence. Sorbacov may have known who the weak link would be, but he was an adult. Czar had been a child and he had known. He had carefully chosen the children he had brought into his circle. There had been a reason for those choices. He had known they would show unwavering loyalty and they wouldn’t break no matter how difficult the circumstances.
He sighed. “She never asked to join our group, but I wouldn’t have allowed her entry. I suppose she wanted us to invite her, and she blamed me for not doing it.”
“That makes sense, especially in a child’s mind,” Preacher agreed. “Over the years, for everything that happened to her, she would place the blame squarely on your shoulders.”
Czar pushed his hand through his hair again. “Now we know who. We know where her main crew is.” He looked at Master, and Ambrielle’s heart dropped. “You’ll have to go to Crawley Prison and take them out, Master. She’ll be cut off from her teams. If she wants to hire assassins, she still can, but that will mean she’ll have to let the Russian in on her revenge plans. She won’t like that.”
Ambrielle waited for Master to object, but he didn’t. He didn’t say a word. She took a deep breath. She’d known all along it would come to this.
“Czar, everyone here has a clean record apart from Master. I know all of you have been in and out of prisons for various reasons, yet you look as clean as Snow White. You can carry weapons and even have a shop where you sell and repair them. Why is it that you didn’t wipe Master’s slate clean as well?”
“Ambrielle . . .” Master cautioned. “Now’s not the time.”
“Now is exactly the time. I want an answer to that question.” She couldn’t help the challenge in her voice.
“Why are you asking?” Czar’s tone was mild.
“Because Master believes the reason you didn’t bother to give him a clean slate is that you don’t think he’s worth it.”
Czar’s head snapped up, and he looked straight at Master in shock. “That can’t be true.”
Master shrugged and stood up, pulling Ambrielle with him. “It doesn’t matter what I believe. I’ve got a job to do. Absinthe will have to get me into the prison.”
“You’re not going,” Ambrielle said. “I mean it, Master. I know if you go this time, you won’t be coming out. You’ll either die there, or you’ll be different. You know it too. I’m not willing to lose you. So yes, I want that question answered for both of us. I think you deserve to hear the truth one way or the other.” She was firm, but she didn’t raise her voice, and she didn’t give in to the insistence of Master’s warning grip on her wrist. She kept her gaze fixed on Czar’s.
A murmur of dissent rippled through the members of Torpedo Ink. Blythe looked horrified.
“I absolutely never thought that about you, Master,” Czar denied. “You can hear lies just like the rest of us. Absinthe, I want you to confirm everything I’m saying. This is far too important not to.”
Czar waited until Absinthe made his way across the room and took Czar’s wrist in his hand, fingers resting on his pulse. “You are worth the same as every man and woman in this room. You’re loved the same. You’re my brother. I didn’t wipe the slate clean because Torpedo Ink needed your expertise in prison. No one else had your skills. I also had this vague feeling that you would meet someone through those skills that would be important in your life. I believed—obviously incorrectly—that you would come to me when you’d had enough, and Absinthe would wipe your record clean at that time.”
Master stared at Czar as if he’d grown another head. Ambrielle could feel shock moving through him. Rejection. He’d spent a lifetime believing Czar thought of him as a throwaway. He thought that of himself. To try to turn that opinion around in that one moment was impossible, although, like Ambrielle, like the others, he had to have heard that ring of truth.
“We’ll find another way to get that assassination team. I won’t risk you going in. Ambrielle seems to have a very good read on you in such a short time with you. I think my radar was particularly on point as far as the right someone coming into your life, Master.”
“I’ve got to eliminate them,” Master said. “I’m not willing to take the chance that she’ll send them after Blythe and the children. In fact, Czar, you know she will. She’s going to come at you soon. We’ve taken her other teams. She’ll have to use them. She believes in them, and she’ll want to see the results firsthand.”
“Exactly,” Ambrielle confirmed. “I’ve had quite a bit of time sitting here thinking up a plan I think is going to work, depending on my man’s skills. I think pretty highly of him and all of you, so I think you can pull this off with no problem.”