Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 145729 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145729 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Fyodor nodded. “You’re right, Joshua. I haven’t seen Sasha in years. I hadn’t heard his family came to the States. That’s how long it’s been. Nikita and my father had a break a few years back over who had jurisdiction over a cocaine pipeline. There was nearly a war. The situation was resolved, but the two men never were friendly after that. That of course meant we couldn’t speak unless it was about business.”
Sasha’s gaze flicked to Joshua and the others, clearly shocked that Fyodor was so open around them. “Why are you with them?”
“We’re allies. Over here, as you know, we need allies, just as we did in Russia. Elijah Lospostos is with us.” Elijah was a huge name in their business, and one you didn’t drop casually. “I took over Antonio Arnotto’s territory.”
“Massi. You’re Alonzo Massi.”
Fyodor nodded. “Joshua is closely aligned with us. We came here to ensure you weren’t leading him into a trap. Nikita has to go just as my father had to go.”
“Lazar will hunt you to the ends of the Earth. He knows you killed his brother and he has serious money offered for any information on you. He won’t stop, Fyodor, but even more than you, he’s after Mitya. His own son. He wants him dead.”
“That’s no surprise,” Fyodor said. “My uncle likes to kill. He lives for that pleasure.”
“He wants to do it himself,” Sasha cautioned. “He’ll come for you, and if you know where Mitya is, he’ll come for him as well.”
“Mitya is here,” Fyodor said. “In the next room. We didn’t want to harm any of your men, but they’ll mostly be waking up soon or they already have. We had to use ties just to be safe, but even with that, we’ve surrounded the place with our guards.”
“Where is Nikita now?” Joshua asked. As far as he was concerned, they could do their happy salutations another time. “Focus on the problem. My woman is not going to die because you want to catch up on old times.”
He knew he would come across as rude, but he didn’t give a rat’s ass. He needed to know where Sasha stood, if he could be trusted – which he wouldn’t be for a long time – and where Nikita was.
“I don’t know. I had a man shadowing him, but I haven’t heard from him. That means Nikita killed him or he’s being tortured right now. There’s no other explanation. If he suddenly contacts me, I’ll know he has a gun to his head. He was to check in every hour. He’d never been late until two hours ago. Nikita knows I left and he knows Dmitri is with me. He’s never liked Dmitri. Before we could disappear, we had to get his parents and sibling to safety. Nikita would have had them killed.”
“Bottom line,” Joshua said. “He’s on his way here.”
“His best revenge against me is to get his hands on her. He would try to get both Dmitri and I to turn ourselves over to him in an empty promise to leave her alive. If we didn’t agree, he’d torture her, record it and play it endlessly for us so that we saw every cut, the blowtorch and whatever other device he chose to use. He’d want us to hear every scream.”
“That won’t happen,” Joshua said. “He isn’t going to get his hands on her.”
“You can’t know that. Don’t underestimate him. This might be your territory, but Nikita doesn’t enter into a game without advantages. He would never come here himself unless he believed he would live through it, even for a big prize like Sonia. Now, more than ever, he’s going to want to find her. I betrayed him. He knows she means something to me. Women, in our families, aren’t worth anything. They can’t matter to us. They’ll shoot a dog if their sons like the dog too much. A woman gets treated far worse.”
Joshua swore under his breath. He suddenly needed to get back to her. He had others watching over her, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t in danger.
Sonia woke from a sound sleep. One moment she was in dreamland, the next she was wide awake. Completely alert. Automatically she reached out toward her leopard. Gatita?
It’s smoke. There’s a fire close. Too close.
She leapt out of bed and ran to the pack she kept at Joshua’s. Her loose-fitting drawstring sweats were there and she yanked them on. A tee was next and then her shoes. She ran to the French doors. Just below her, the men were attempting to put out a fire on the verandah. It had spread across the wooden deck.
“Gray? What’s happening?”
“Fire started around the side of the house and spread. I don’t like it, Sonia. Too convenient. We were forced to call the fire department, and that lets in strangers,” Gray called back. “We’re going to have to get you out of here.”