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)
“Where the fuck are they holding her?” When he foolishly shakes his head, I batter his ribs for the second time before adding to the graze the brickwork scraped across his nose by breaking it with my fist. “Where the fuck is she!”
Through the blood pouring out of his nose, he mutters, “I don’t know anything, man. I was just asked to advise when you’d left.” He whimpers when I belt into him for the third time.
He can barely stand by the time I’m done, so I grab hold of his shirt and bring him to within an inch of my face. “Where. Is. She?”
“He had her at the compound, some shit about hiding in plain sight.” He licks the blood flooding his lips before murmuring, “But I swear, man, I didn’t touch her. I couldn’t trust she wouldn’t clamp my dick off.”
He just signed his death certificate.
I was already struggling.
Snowed fucking under with worry.
Then he goes and tells me about my girl having another man’s junk in her hand.
Threatening to rip off a man’s appendage is how Ana kept herself safe on the streets. There were a handful who thought she was all talk. They’re too knowledgeable to do the same now.
They also have nothing left to brag about.
Ghost and I took care of their ‘package’ back then as I am tempted with this fool now. The only reason I don’t is because I don’t have time, and you need to mutilate it to make sure it can’t be sewn back on.
When I yank my gun out of my pants, his eyes widen before he repeats, “I swear, man, I didn’t touch he—”
His words are ended with a bullet, and I’m only just wiping the brain matter my kill shot splattered my face with when Katie breezily enters the foyer.
I dump the goon into the bushes surrounding the driveway before opening the door for Katie. “This way.”
As she takes a seat in the main SUV, my phone buzzes, announcing I have a text message.
I yank it out so fast, if Ana were here, she’d be waterboarding me with fluids to make sure the only pain I face the next twelve hours is a bursting bladder.
Yev:
That airport investment you bought stocks in crumbled. The kitty is so empty, only the homeless have taken camp on the grounds.
He’s keeping it in code since Kirill most likely has someone monitoring our phones.
Alek:
Fucking great. Head home. I heard Vera’s syrnikis are on the menu today. We missed them earlier because they were being kept under wraps.
Yev drives like a madman, so I’m not shocked when I receive a message from him before we’re even halfway to town. There are no words. Just an image of a crumpled blanket under chains bolted to the icy cold walls of the dungeon in the basement of the compound.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!”
Katie is too busy drinking in the scenery whizzing by her window to pay attention to my mini outburst. It makes what I’m about to do a smidge easier.
I hit send on the message I typed out hours ago.
I rat on my best friend.
I am a fucking prick.
When Kirill’s message displays it has been read, I try to lessen the guilt raking through me.
Me:
Get to the docks. Now!
Yev’s reply flashes up almost immediately.
Yev:
OMW.
During the forty-minute drive, I try to come up with a solution that will work for both Ghost and me. It is an epic waste of time. One of us has to lose, but I have more at stake than him.
Ana is pregnant with my kid.
We don’t know yet who knocked Katie up.
Besides, Anastasia comes first. There’s never been any doubt in my mind about that.
I’m shocked when our arrival at the docks is relatively low-key. Ghost and a handful of Kirill’s men are flanking the port as they always do during embarkments, but Kirill is nowhere to be seen even with the compound being closer to the docks than the monastery, and his men seem pretty blasé. They’re not prepared for battle at all.
“Stay close to me,” I whisper to Katie when I assist her out of the back of the middle SUV.
Her chin hardly moves when the plan Ghost worked on all last night begins. Gunfire rings from the hills behind us, forcing Kirill’s men to pull their heads out of their asses.
“Keep your head down.” A replica of the bulletproof vest I forced Ghost to put on before I left his office this morning digs into my stomach when I pull Katie behind a thick shrub before returning fire.
I don’t aim in the direction gunfire is ringing from. I fire aimlessly while peering over at the SUV Ghost organized to have hidden at the side of the port. The keys are on the driver’s seat, the door is flung open. All Katie needs to do is run.