Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 70320 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70320 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
You need to be comfortably uncomfortable, love. That’s where all the best things happen.
Having all that money at my disposal would be too comfortable. And I don’t want a comfortable life. Maybe that’s why I’m here in Greece.
For a moment out there, I felt something between us. A spark, something hot and glowing. Something dizzying and satisfying. But I have to remind myself that Peter is a gangster, a member of a crime family, and he has spent his whole life stealing from people like me. If I let him, he’ll take what I have.
The story of my life. Everyone trying to take what I have, or at least trying to worm their way into my life to get a taste of it.
That’s what money does to people. That’s why I don’t want it.
I spend a few minutes watching the waves, put my walls back up, and march into the house. Peter meets me in the kitchen. “We’re going to the Filos tomorrow,” he says. “Be ready.”
“Do I get a gun?”
“You’d better. You have to watch my back now, killer.”
Chapter 10
Adrienne
The Filo family compound is an old sheep herding ranch in the central rural section of Crete in a windswept valley a half mile away from the next paved road. The truck rumbles along the gravel path as Peter keeps his eyes straight ahead, staring at the structures in the distance as they slowly come into view.
“How worried should I be right now?” I ask him and reach down to touch the small gun I have tucked into a holster slipped into the waistband of my jeans. The gun is a tiny .22 with only a few bullets, small even in my hand, but its presence gives me a strange feeling of comfort. I’ve never been a gun person before and always thought guns were for weirdos and crazy people. Now that there’s one tucked into my pants, I feel like I have a power over the world. Like a new kind of strength has been unlocked for me. If someone wants to hurt me right now, I have the ability to hurt them right back.
“Not too worried,” he says as he parks the car. Two armed men stand on the front porch staring at us. They’re wearing jeans, dark shirts, dark sunglasses, and have rifles slung over their shoulders. Neither move to approach. “The Filo family was part of the Florakis association, and the Florakis ruled the Greek crime lords up until they were all but wiped out a few months back. Kacia’s the only Florakis that survived, but she doesn’t seem interested in trying to revive her family’s prestige. But anyway, we were all allied together, which means we know how all the others operate. There shouldn’t be any surprises here.”
“What was the association like?”
“Imagine a bunch of bickering old men with varying loyalties and desires all working to make each other rich. The association brought together all the crime lords for the first time in Greece’s history, and I doubt something like that will ever happen again. It was like herding cats. No, it was like herding angry, feral cats that actively want to scratch your eyes out.” He runs his hands along the steering wheel and lets out a sigh. “In theory, the Filos are allied with my family, but in practice, it’s more like every man for himself. If it’s in the Filos’ best interest to help us, then they will. Otherwise? Who knows.” He pushes open the door and gestures for me to follow.
I go after him, acutely aware of the way the gun moves under my shirt. He swears it’s invisible considering how small the actual weapon is and how my top is slightly flowy, but it’s not like it would matter anyway. He’s armed, those men are armed, everyone in this world is armed. Why shouldn’t I walk around with a gun of my own?
The guards approach. “We were told you’d be coming today,” the lead man says. He’s got big, bushy eyebrows. “The boss is waiting for you in his study.”
Bushy Brows takes us into the house. From the outside, the ranch looks plain, almost ramshackle, but inside, it’s like stepping into an entirely differently building. Everything’s been refinished and modernized, from the floorboards to the light fixtures, and it all screams luxury. We’re taken down a short hall and deposited outside of an ornate door. Peter gives me a look like, get a load of this, and turns the gold-plated knob.
Inside, the head of the Filo family sits in front of a crackling fireplace sipping whiskey. He stands as we enter and smiles warmly. He’s a big man, burly, round shoulders, dark hair, dark eyes. He shakes Peter’s hand and kisses the air beside both of my cheeks. “Come, sit down, have a drink.”