Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 127461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
He moistened his lips and drew in a deep breath. “Raul is the son of a very important man in Panama, Gorya. His death may bring retribution down on your family. Perhaps I could try to act as an intermediary.” He made the offer woodenly, but he wanted confirmation that Derk and Raul were dead.
“That won’t be necessary. I know who Jaoa Escabar Velentez is and exactly what he does. I may be a new pakhan here, but for years I’ve kept up with business through my family. He’ll be informed of his son’s death and the reasons why.”
The piercing through his heart was worse than any knife could have been. Braum looked around the room at the remaining men. They had no idea what was in store for them. He did. They were all condemned to death. Every man at that table.
“I challenge you for leadership.” He issued the confrontation listlessly. His leopard wasn’t in the least responsive. It didn’t seem to want to fight for him.
“I challenge for leadership,” Krylov echoed. He seemed suddenly aware of the death sentence hanging over them. “As long as you fight me and don’t have your brother fight your battles for you.”
“Do you mean you would like me to fight fair?” For the first time there seemed to be a trace of amusement in Gorya’s tone, although if so, there was none in his eyes. “You don’t think I should have Timur fight my battles for me or an assassination team waiting in the swamp to shoot you if I fail to get the job done?”
Braum instantly had a bad taste in his mouth. He felt that lash of contempt from the pakhan. They all did. There was no honor in the challenges sent to Gorya. They’d wanted him dead and had set him up to be killed after the first three official challenges.
“Yes,” Krylov demanded, choosing not to see the irony.
Three others quickly followed suit. The three were unmated men, strong, with fierce leopards. Braum knew they stood little chance against Gorya, but he could tell they thought they did. Vinn and Edik were brothers. It didn’t surprise him that they would challenge for leadership. They had been entrenched in trafficking, guarding and training the girls who were delivered into holding and passing them through to the various destinations.
Karol was a little more surprising. He worked at the harbor and oversaw the loading and offloading of the arms, girls and drugs. He was methodical at his job, which made him excellent at supervising his crews. He wasn’t a drinker and rarely did things to excess. Braum had kept an eye on him for grooming as a future pakhan. He had the makings.
It was possible to turn this thing around. It would only take one challenger to win the battle. Gorya’s security team couldn’t interfere. His cousin couldn’t either. Once a new pakhan was leader of the lair, Gorya’s people could be ordered to leave—or imprisoned. There was no doubt in his mind that if they were killed or imprisoned, his lair would be at war with every Amurov territory surrounding him. He didn’t have the manpower to fight them.
The question was, how could they win? He needed a strategy. If they cheated, the challenger would be killed instantly by Timur or Gorya’s security. This had to be a fair fight, but somehow, he knew he had to stack the odds in his men’s favor. Once more, Braum studied Gorya. That charming mask was so deceiving.
“I want you five to make absolutely certain that you want to make the challenge to face Rogue. He has no mercy in him. He’s a vicious killer. He despises traffickers. In particular, he despises men with children who would, without thought, take other men’s children from them and sell them to the highest bidder. His justice won’t be a clean, quick execution. Once you decide this is the way you want to go, there is no backing out.”
Braum knew the warning was for him. He had given the orders to take Leo’s daughter from the man. Although his name wasn’t anywhere to be seen, he had been the one to accept women and children coming in on boats and planes and in trucks and then shipping them out to the other territories.
Albert Krylov gave a little sniff of contempt. “I don’t think scaring us with your big bad leopard is going to stop anyone from challenging you.”
For the first time, a hint of satisfaction crept into the cold, ghostly eyes and Braum found himself shivering. It wasn’t a good idea to bait the predator, but Krylov couldn’t seem to keep his mouth shut. Perhaps he had a childhood grudge against the Amurov family. Whatever the reason, he continued to taunt Gorya.
“I presume your new mate will be there to witness the challenges, unless she’s hiding for fear you won’t win. She’ll be the first one we train to send to the homeland. My brother and his men will welcome her properly.”