Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 77118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
“Whose drugs were they then?” I asked, brows pinching.
“Someone who wants them back,” he said. “And if I don’t get them back tonight, Donny dies.”
I didn’t know Donny.
And maybe this made me a heartless bitch, but I honestly didn’t give a shit if he died.
“If he’s even still alive,” Chet said, voice sounding wrecked.
I hated myself for it a little bit, but a part of me went out to him, to that wounded sound in his voice. Because, clearly, whoever Donny was, he was important to Chet.
And the crazy thing was, a part of me still did give a shit about Chet. What can I say? We’d worked side-by-side for years. It was going to take my heart and soul a little longer to immediately hate him like my brain wanted me to do.
“You should demand proof of life before you agree to anything,” I told him.
“What? Like the finger left in my car this morning?” Chet asked, looking gray at the memory.
Jesus.
That was grim.
I could almost understand kidnapping me.
I honestly wouldn’t think twice of doing the same if someone I loved was in danger.
“Or the tooth from a couple nights ago?”
The night I was attacked, maybe?
Again, I wasn’t sure that I wouldn’t do the same thing.
“Why didn’t you just come to me?” I asked, a hint of betrayal in my voice.
“Right. Like I could fucking trust you when you’re friendly with Erion Kadare,” Chet hissed.
Erion Kadare.
The guy on the street?
The one from my apartment building?
“How long have you been stalking me?” I asked.
“Keeping an eye on you for Czar is hardly stalking.”
“Actually, it’s totally stalking. Especially since Czar told me he had nothing to do with all the letters, flowers, and threats over the past few years since his cousin went away.”
“Fine,” Chet hissed, swinging his arms, full of restless energy. “It has nothing to do with Czar. I’m keeping an eye on you to make sure you’re not talking shit about your time with him since Czar wouldn’t let you get taken out. But they don’t give a shit about that anymore,” he added, making my stomach clench.
“They want me dead?”
“It was supposed to happen as soon as we suspected you betrayed Czar to get with that fucking shithead biker.”
Oh, the rage that built within me at that moment almost made me think I could Hulk my way out of my bindings, then bash his skull in with my bare hands.
“Then why didn’t it?” I asked, knowing I needed more time. Until I worked out a plan. Or until someone saved me.
“Because I fucking gave you the drugs!” Chet yelled, turning back toward me, and for a moment, I thought he might hit me again. “I had nowhere else safe to stash them. They were onto me. And fucking now they have Donny…”
“Who is Donny?” I asked.
“Donny,” Chet repeated, like I was being dense. “The youngest nephew of the boss.”
So Chet was… fucked.
Even if he managed to save the guy in the end, he was missing a tooth and a finger. Someone was going to have to answer for that. Like the man who’d put him in that situation.
“Where’s my fucking drugs?”
“Whose drugs are they really?” I asked.
“Some fucking two-bit operation a few towns over,” Chet said, making a disgusting sound. Like it was beneath him to have to deal with them. Meanwhile, he’d stolen their drugs. “It had been like taking candy from babies,” he added, seeming to talk mostly to himself.
Except, it seemed, he’d underestimated them.
And he was going to pay for it with his life at this rate.
“Why did you steal it?”
“To prove to them that we could handle ourselves over here! Get our own supply,” Chet said. “Where is it?”
I figured this was not a good time to tell him that half of it was missing.
“Not at my apartment, as you’ve probably figured out by now,” I said, giving him a hard look.
“I didn’t want to hurt you. You weren’t supposed to be home so fast.”
“Did you really think I was stupid enough to stash drugs at my own apartment?”
“You lived with drugs when you lived with Czar.”
“The difference was that I didn’t know about that. He never told me about the drugs. Now as a grown-ass adult, I would never keep heroin stashed in my fucking panty drawer, or whatever you were envisioning.” He said nothing to that, just kept pacing, likely thinking about his friend. “Why me?” I asked, making him turn to look at me. “Why would you do this to me? This town is full of places you could stash the drugs.”
To that, he shrugged. “I was testing your loyalty, I guess. To Czar. Give you a chance of making it through this. I’ve always liked you.”
“So, what now? You get the drugs from me and then deliver me to them to murder me?” I asked, words starting to drip with venom. “I worked side-by-side with you for years, Chet. Years. I trained you. I stood up for you when you fucked up. I covered shifts for you. And, what? That just means jack-shit to you? You’re just going to let me get killed.”