Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 89090 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89090 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
“It was sent to us,” KIiment answers.
“Alek?” I query, narrowing the list. With the crew working off a dodgy satellite service, every connection in and out is done through Kliment. He monitors everything to ensure we don’t get permanently locked out.
I can’t see him, but I picture him jerking up his chin when a woosh sounds down the line. His reply lowers my suspicions that my phone has been hacked. Alek and Ghost know their every move is being monitored. You can’t anchor only miles from Henry Gottle’s turf and believe he isn’t listening. I’m just curious as to why the Gottles would move on a traitor of a rival gang.
My mouth gapes when a thought pops into my head. “He’s letting them in.”
I imagine Kliment’s shit-eating grin when he says with a chuckle, “We can’t trade, but there’s less chance of a bullet to the ass now if we step on land.”
“What changed Henry’s mind?”
A whistle sounds through my teeth when he answers, “Katie.”
“She knows Ghost is alive?”
Another whoosh before, “Nah. Not yet. But she might soon since Ghost has resorted back to being sneaky.”
Kliment laughs when I ask, “How many shampoo bottles has he knocked up this week?”
“I ain’t fucking asking. He’s a moody prick when he’s not getting any.”
“You’re preaching to the wrong person.” I stray my eyes to my bedroom door when the shower switches on. The reminder that Polina is waiting for me has me shutting down my laptop and saying, “Can you put me through to Alek?”
“I would if he had access to his phone.”
My silence keeps him talking.
“Ana confiscated it. Some shit about stress not being good for his head.” He waits a beat before asking, “Do you know what that’s about? I thought they fixed his head when they removed part of his skull.”
They did, but Alek’s condition that almost ended his life several years ago is lifelong.
He will never get rid of it.
But since that isn’t my story to tell, I say, “Then patch me through to Ana. I doubt Alek will be far from her. She’s about to pop any day now.”
Kliment laughs before doing as asked.
Ana answers breathlessly two seconds later. “If it were anyone else interrupting his breakfast, I would have banished them from my life for eternity.”
Breakfast?
Alek isn’t a breakfast type of guy.
I realize my error two seconds later when Alek’s deep rumble sounds down the line. “Tell him to hurry the fuck up, Ana, or he’s going to hear you come, and then I’ll have every right to kill him.”
“You’re… he’s…” I screw up my face. “For fuck’s sake, Ana. You could have just said you were busy.”
“I’ll never be too busy for you, Yev.”
“Like fuckin’ hell you won’t,” Alek grumbles out, his growl masculine-stripping.
I don’t know what’s pissing him off more. Me interrupting him eating his girl or the fact he realizes I’ll most likely do the same to his baby sister sometime today.
Perhaps a bit of both.
Forever willing to push the boundaries when it comes to the snarly beast, I murmur out slowly, “It’s about Annika…”
22
POLINA
The shower has almost run cold by the time Yev joins me. It’s for the best. I’ll need a cold shower after drinking in his tattooed pecs, the hard bumps in his midsection, and the wonderment that’ll keep my head in a tizzy more diversely than the constant mess flung our way over the past couple of days.
I miss when my life was simpler, but I’d never go back since it was a time Yev wasn’t in the picture. Seeing how he responded to Annika’s stories about the time she spent with Feo resurfaced those feelings that rushed me hard and fast seven months ago.
I was falling for Yev back then, and I am again now. His exterior is just hardened with grief this time around instead of cockiness.
When he tugs his sweats down, I wipe away the steam from the glass door, not wanting even something as minute as a drop of water to hinder the view.
My god, this man’s body is divine. It isn’t as big and beastly like a lot of men in my brother’s industry, but it is tanned, toned, and panty-wetting delicious. And don’t get me started on his cock or I’ll catch pneumonia.
“Hey.” Yev grins before slotting into the space between me and the tiled wall, my gawk not missed when his erection forces him to take the long route. “Holy fucking shit.” He squeals like a girl when the water hits his shoulder. “That’s damn freezing.”
“You took too long to get here,” I reply, my eyes unable to deviate from his gorgeous face. He has such a dark, moody look with almost black hair and eyes, but his personality is on the opposite end of the spectrum. Before Feo’s untimely death, Yev’s playfulness thawed through the iciness I used to protect myself in a shamefully quick couple of days. “Did you speak with Alek?”