Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 86238 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86238 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
After stuffing the sugar tablets back into the seat pocket with force, I race up the Bobrov compound stairs.
“Is everything all right?” Yev asks, following me.
“Everything’s fine.”
“You sure?” He slaps my shoulder like he’s my friend. He isn’t. I’m currently of the belief everyone is my enemy. “Because you’re not usually this tense after fighting with Ana.” He hits me with a cocky wink. “Usually, she’d drain the energy right from your veins.”
Pissed and too fretful not to take it out on people more deserving, I pin Yev to the wall by his throat, then glare at him. I try to tell him to fuck off, to express that he isn’t fucking needed because I got Anastasia into this mess so I will get her out of it, but I can’t speak when my eyes lock on the skin stretched across his jugular.
Three little words that assured Ana I didn’t need to tell her I loved her for her to know it was true. I showed it in other ways. Stupid, immature ways, but other ways, nonetheless.
Ana’s throat here.
The wish to fight back stops blazing through Yev’s eyes when I mutter, “Stay in contact, and I will too.”
His wide and suddenly concerned eyes bounce between mine for several painful seconds before he hesitantly jerks up his chin.
I drop my hand from his throat before straightening his clothes, which are way too pricy for a bottom-dweller gang affiliate, then I continue inside.
Mercifully, he seems to have understood my request to keep looking for Ana because instead of shadowing me inside the compound, he races back to his sports car, jumps into the driver’s seat, then tears out of the lot like a maniac.
I startle like a soft cock when I’m unexpectedly asked, “Everything okay?”
Ghost witnessed my exchange with Yev. His balled hands announce this, much less the wish to kill slashed across his face.
I lift my chin. “Yeah. He said some shit I didn’t like. I let him know it.” I shift the focus off me the only way I know how by shunting his attention onto someone else. “How is Kate?” I can tell he visited her as he has every night the past several months because his eyes are nowhere near as pained as they were earlier, but I’m shocked he’s back so soon. He usually stays there until dawn.
Never one to talk about his emotions, Ghost answers me with a shrug before entering the compound. I follow him like I’m not counting down the seconds until ten o’clock this morning.
It seems centuries away when Ghost enters the bathroom attached to his office and cranks on the shower. He isn’t feeling dirty, he wants to talk in private, and I’m the last person he should be confiding in.
When I join him in the bathroom, he discloses, “There are rumors Kirill is getting the ship ready. We have no shipments scheduled. I had Kliment check.”
I feel like a dog when I mutter, “Maybe he’s picking up some new consignments? The prostitution conglomerate is killing it at the moment. We have more customers than whores.”
Ghost shakes his head. “Maksim closed his account. Some shit about his fiancée not agreeing with his business models.”
“Then maybe that’s what Kirill’s plans are about? Selling off the excess stock.”
He glares at me like I’m fucking stupid.
“What? It’s fucking two in the morning. My head doesn’t work at this hour.”
He continues to glare, finally clueing me on how Yev feels when I have a go at him. You know you can fight back, and you would give anything to do so, but you also know your stirring will eventually come back to bite you on the ass.
Although I’d give anything to tell him the truth, I can’t. Kirill kills his own fucking kids, for crying out loud. If he even caught wind that I’d narked on him, Anastasia’s body would never be found.
“What do you want to do, G? It’s obvious that there are steps in play, and considering he pulled Sofia and Lera to the monastery shows it is something significant, but I can’t say where we go from here because it isn’t my decision.”
Steam billows around us when he takes a moment to deliberate. I’m not surprised at the direction his theory takes. I would have gone the same way if Katie were my girl. It is why my guilt shouldn’t be as high as it is. “I need to get Katie out. I wanted to get her home, but I have no jurisdiction there. No fucking power.” He pffts himself while dragging his hands over his scalp. “I don’t have any here either.” He stares at the vanity mirror like he wants to put his fists through it, but he fights to remain calm.
It is the fight of his life when I murmur, “But we’ve got four… five of us, max. Kirill has an army. The numbers don’t add up.” After angling his head to expose his scars, he peers at me like he doesn’t know who I am. I get it. I was the one who pushed him to make a move two years ago. It resulted in half of his body being blasted into chunks. “I’m not saying you shouldn’t fight. I am just not sure you should go it alone.”