Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76821 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76821 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
“Makes sense,” I admitted.
I’d only met the woman a few times, but she’d always come off as cold, cunning, capable, and incredibly secretive.
“Someone catches sight of her here and there, but she is like a ghost when she wants to be. So Natalya is who has your woman.”
“Yes.”
I mean, there was no certainty, was there? I hadn’t seen her. But there was only one woman from my past who might hate me enough to hurt someone I cared for just to get to me.
“I assume you do not need me telling you how dangerous that situation is,” Rolan said, pinning me with a dark look in those light eyes.
“No,” I agreed. “You don’t. When your men have seen her, where did they see her?”
“Why should I tell you anything? Last I checked, you were an enemy to this organization.”
“I was an enemy to Iosif’s organization. The way I hear it, this isn’t his anymore. It’s yours. And you were the one to off the old man, so I can’t imagine why someone who was his enemy would be your enemy.”
To that, Rolan shot me a little upside down smile, and nodded his head.
“That’s not… illogical,” he decided.
“Besides, my job was to get enough information back to the Italians so they could take out Iosif themselves. Really, I would have been doing you a favor. If not for…”
“Natalya,” Rolan filled in when I trailed off.
“So you’re not losing anything by telling me where she has been seen,” I reasoned.
“Fair enough,” he said, shrugging. “The Everglades,” he said. “Pretty deep in, from what my man said.”
“And he was sure it was her?” I asked.
At that, his brow raised. “Do you really think it is possible to mistake Natalya for any other woman?” Rolan asked.
That was… fair.
No, she wasn’t my type, but Natalya was almost intimidatingly attractive.
I imagined that was a large part of why she’d become so feral, so vicious. Pretty women drew the attention of a lot of men. And many of them likely didn’t have manners or respect boundaries. It had to harden a woman over time. Make them cold and guarded.
Those were two perfect descriptions for the woman.
I’d never met anyone who’d been quite so hard to read. Maybe save for Rolan himself.
And she was so fucking prickly that it was impossible to get anywhere near her, even if you wanted to.
“The Glades, though,” I said, shaking my head. “That doesn’t sound like her style.”
“No?” he asked, brows pinching. “Secluded, dangerous. A place where no one is around to fuck with her. Sounds exactly like where she would be happy to call home.”
“Do you have anything I could use against her?” I asked. “When I find her, if she has the upper hand.”
“She does have the upper hand,” Rolan said, shrugging. “You’re the one with something to lose, not her.”
“Right. So… I could use a secret weapon.”
To that, Rolan looked off to the side, almost as if he was weighing whether or not to use what weapon he had.
That was… intriguing.
It was something I would likely think on.
Some other time.
When a complete fucking psycho didn’t have Maeve.
“You could poke at her childhood wound,” he said.
“I’m going to need more than that, Rolan.”
“She was abandoned on the street as a baby. Left for dead. Police found her, close to her last breath, took her to the orphanage. Where she grew up. Unloved and unwanted.”
Oh, shit was starting to fall into place.
Unloved and unwanted.
Until she came to the States.
Until she met Iosif.
The fatherly figure she’d never had.
“Why are you still alive?” I asked, shaking my head at him.
“Come again?”
“I know that she hates me. But in the end, I was harmless. Caused no damage to Iosif. You murdered him. Why are you still alive?”
“Because there is nothing Natalya can use against me.”
I knew what he was saying, without him actually saying it.
There was nothing he loved.
No one who loved him.
She had no secret weapon to use against him.
“I imagine, left alive, she will come for me one day.”
He almost sounded like he was excited for the prospect.
“Donovan!” Huck’s voice called from outside.
“Your ten minutes appears to be up,” Rolan said, waving an arm out to the door in a way that said to see myself out.
“I appreciate the information, Rolan,” I said before starting to move away.
“Donovan,” he called, making me half turn back, brows raised.
“Make no mistake. We are not allies. Don’t come to my door again.”
To that, I nodded.
That was fine by me.
If I got to live a long life where I never encountered Rolan Sokolov again, I would count myself lucky.
When I made my way outside, I did see that I was right about Rolan’s men.
They were around.
Somewhat casually.
But the bulges under their shirts, or the guns in their holsters were silent threats.
“Let’s go,” I demanded.
We needed to talk, but we had to get off of the Bratva property first.