Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 105065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 525(@200wpm)___ 420(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 525(@200wpm)___ 420(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
“Would you get a load of yourselves?” she laughs. “Even now, you’re so fucking self-involved you don’t believe me. I didn’t exist to you back then, and I still don’t now.”
“Okay, Mandy.” I keep my voice calm and steady. She wants to talk, we’ll talk. It’s a good distraction while I think. “Tell me where you think you know me from.”
“I must have passed you a thousand times on the street. You never even looked at me. I even slept in the same stairwells, the abandoned warehouses…”
She jams a finger into her chest as her voice wavers. “That was me.”
“You’re from Southie?” I ask.
Again, I’m surprised. There were a lot of runaways on the street back in those days. We all had our own little groups. But I genuinely don’t recognize Mandy. I wasn’t looking to make any other friends back then, I was simply looking to survive.
“I’ll give you a little refresher,” she says. “You know that deli over on M Street? The one by the park?”
Donny stiffens beside me, and my own stomach rolls as the pieces of the puzzle start to fall together.
“And I know you know the alley behind that deli.” She points the gun towards me and that bitterness is back again.
“How do you know that?” I croak.
“Because I was there that night!” she screams. “I was fucking there, hiding in the shadows. And your friend Scarlett came to rescue you and Talia, but you left me behind. You left me there…”
I’m shaking my head, denying it. “That isn’t true, I would have known. She cut him… she cut his face.”
“Yes, she cut him,” Mandy answers. “She cut Donny’s face.”
Oh my God. I think I’m going to be sick. I glance at him again. The scar. The one I thought was from fighting. There’s no way. I would have known…
“Did that little cut stop you and your friend Donny?” Mandy shoves the gun against his head again. “Well did it?”
He doesn’t answer, but the guilt is written all over his face.
“No…” I choke out.
I don’t want to believe it. Believe that this sadistic bastard was right in front of me all along. And he not only hurt Mandy and God knows how many other girls, but Sasha too.
“Yes,” Mandy sighs. “I told you he ran with a different crew back then.”
“Mandy…”
“Don’t.” She jams the gun in my direction. “I don’t want to hear your empty words.”
Silence falls between us, and I try to digest everything she’s just said. It was Donny that pushed me into that dark alley all those years ago. I didn’t recognize him because I was too focused on fighting off both of them. Scarlett showed up and cut him, and then she grabbed my hand and we ran. I didn’t look back. I didn’t see the other guy’s face either. I was only thinking about getting out of there.
“Now you both have to pay for your sins,” Mandy’s low voice cuts through the silence.
I think back to the photos of Mandy that the PI sent me. How I thought they were using her. And something even more sickening occurs to me.
“You were having sex with him.”
I know it’s not the right thing to say, but I feel like I’m going to vomit. He must have really done a number on her, and I can only imagine what kind of anger could fuel that sort of determination.
She glares at me and shakes the gun at me again. “It was part of the bigger picture. He’d already violated me once, so what did it matter if he did it again. This time, I was in control. Isn’t that right, Donny?”
He doesn’t answer, so she clocks him in the head again.
“Yes,” he says finally. His voice is quiet, barely a whisper, but he can’t hide his anger.
“And Ivan,” I add. “You were using him and Donny to start a war between the Russians and the Irish?”
“Not trying.” She smiles. “I did start a war. Did you not see what happened tonight? It’s over. They’re all going to rip each other to shreds now. The whole organization will fall to the ground.”
“But why?” I ask. “Why not just go after Donny?”
“Because.” The bitterness returns to her features. “After Lachlan screwed me over, I wanted them all to pay. Every last one of them.”
“I don’t get it,” I tell her.
“You wouldn’t.” She laughs. “You never could. You don’t understand what it’s like to be rejected over and over again. By you. By Talia. By everyone in this world. I was never good enough for anybody to notice me. To even look twice at the damaged girl on the street. I liked Lachlan. That was real. But he didn’t understand. I couldn’t tell him about the bigger picture. I had to get Donny. He thought I was cheating on him, but it meant nothing. None of them meant anything…”
God, this chick really is off her head. I can’t help but feel bad for her, almost. “I understand better than most,” I tell her softly.
“That’s where you’re wrong,” she says. “You had Scarlett. And Talia. But not anymore. Because I took her from you.”
My head jerks around and any sympathy I may have held a moment ago vanishes. “What does that mean?”
“I set her up,” she says coldly. “I made her think that her Russian loved her. That he wanted her.”
She glances my way and sighs. “It was so easy, because that’s what we all want, isn’t it? The broken like us. He sold her. And then she died. Left to fend for herself just like you left me that night. She died cold, and alone, and completely broken…”
“I’m going to fucking murder you!” I spit.
She jams the gun into my temple and glances back over my shoulder. I know we’ve been driving for a long time already. There isn’t a lot of gas left in the car. This is her last stand. She has to know we can’t outrun Lachlan. She’s going to kill me and Donny. That must be the final conclusion to her bigger picture.