Total pages in book: 196
Estimated words: 180438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 902(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 601(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 180438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 902(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 601(@300wpm)
I still find it hard to believe that a little girl could be behind all of this, but Lyon has been blaming someone named Russo for helping her and cursing whoever this Russo person is out with every other breath he takes. Mancini, on the other hand, swears that MengeLiNi has only used Russo for grunt work while they do all the heavy lifting.
I try to follow along with these conversations, but I have to admit to being lost more often than not. “You okay, kid? Don’t worry too much about it. If his name is on the dotted line, you’ll get your money. By the way, your ex will be released in another day or so. We thought it best to wait until your girl was out of the state. That way, none of this would come back on her.”
“None of what? I don’t understand. Elena had nothing to do with what happened to Janie. She was with me when she was taken to the hospital, don’t you remember?”
“It’s not that, and I’m not at liberty to say any more than that. Let’s go. You can’t burn your bridges with this guy, we still need to know who all of the players are in this game of theirs, and so far, we were only able to get a few names from that Mary person.”
“Yeah, I heard. How did you do that anyway?”
“I can’t tell you that. You should get back soon anyway; your girl is going to call you soon.”
“How do you know that? In fact, how do you guys know so much about everything that goes on around here?” I still have yet to figure that one out. I wouldn’t exactly say that I had been taken into the fold, though they have been nothing but great with Elena and me.
Lyon’s pep talks still make me feel like I’ve been accepted somewhat, but I know, of course, that there’s a lot they don’t share with me, whether for my sake or because I’m not one of them.
“It’s my job to know these things.”
I was doing my best to trust the process, but this whole thing was getting way over my head. I didn’t know when this all started that we would be here, that I would learn things about the people I trusted that showed them in less than an ethical light, or worse, that I would remember things from my past that reminded me why I should never have trusted them in the first place.
As bad as it was, the fact that Elena was going to call me soon lifted my spirits more than anything else ever could. I wasn’t so much put out about the money; I can always make more, and quite frankly, money has never been that important to me. I had more than enough even before the sale, but it’s the principle of the thing and the fact that he tried to scam me once again after everything he had already done. I was tired of being used by these people, and I wanted to see them pay.
By the time we reached the SUV, I had calmed down enough to admit that rescuing those girls was more important than my anger. And even though I was serious about lawyering up and taking him to court, that was a business move after all, and it’s not like it’s the first time we’d had a falling out. Though in the past, they were mostly about my relationship with Elena and how he thought she was no good for me.
For that alone, I’m willing to cool it for now, just so I can make him pay for what he used me to do to her.
“You did good, by the way. Had you let it slide without an argument, he would’ve been suspicious. That’s a lot of fucking money.”
“Yeah, I know, but I was only partly playing. I had no idea that he’d tried to scam me like that. I thought he’d sold it for fifty mil, and even though I was pissed, Lyon had already warned me that something like that was coming, so I was prepared for that at least. I still can’t believe he tried to swindle me out of more than a hundred million dollars.”
“You still don’t understand who these people are, do you?” The way he said that made my skin crawl. I was coming to see more and more just who I had climbed into bed with when I was too young to know better. That got me thinking about Mom. I hadn’t really talked to her since Elena told me about her agreeing to me getting married to someone else. I’ve been able to put her off for now, but I know the day is coming when I’ll have to face her.