Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 74035 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74035 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Outfit. Not a single person, then.
Noted.
This guy’s smaller than I am, but he moves with the grace of an assassin. I don’t move.
I tense, bracing myself for a blow but it doesn’t come. He kneels in front of me and says in my ear, “How many you kill, brother? Nine? Ten? We’ll take that outta you.”
There it is, the threat before they beat the shit out of me. Been here before. I won’t cave, and I won’t die, and neither will she.
If he thinks I’m her bodyguard and doesn’t yet know he’s captured a Rossi, that could play into my favor. I rack my brain trying to think of how I can hide it or if I should even try—one glance at the rose on my forearm and he’ll know exactly who I am.
“And you.” He lets me go and reaches for Vivia. I tense, trying to assess the damage I can do when my hands are bound. If he hurts her—
“You’ve got a lot to answer for, don’t you?”
She spits in his face. Motherfucker, didn’t Sergio teach her anything about hostage situations? God. Seems like Sergio didn’t teach her anything.
He grabs a fistful of her hair. I lean back, swivel my leg hard and knock him off balance. He falls in front of me which makes it easy to jam my foot in his neck to hold him in place. I won’t be able to restrain him for long with my hands bound and he’s got the advantage, but the element of surprise is working in my favor for now.
“Apologize, Vivia.” I can toss him a bone.
“For what?” she snaps.
Of all the fucking times to give me shit—
“Better for you if you don’t provoke them.”
“Oh, like sweeping his legs and pinning him by the throat isn’t provoking at all.”
I grit my teeth and shove my back against hers.
“Fine. I’m sorry. Shouldn’t have done that,” she says. He shoves me off of him and gets to his feet, reaches for his gun, cocks it and aims at her. If I don’t intervene and get the attention focused back on me, he’s gonna hurt her.
“You gonna blow my brains out like a pussy? With me tied up?” I shake my head. “Untie my bonds and let’s fight it out, brother. Make me earn that fucking bullet.”
The door opens further, letting in more light.
“Why’d you keep him alive?” I can’t see much but a dark shadow against yellowed light behind him. “Should’ve shot him already.”
I don’t recognize their voices. I don’t detect any accents. They’re working together for a larger group.
“I wasn’t instructed to kill him, too. Mullet was useless to us, but the bodyguard might prove useful and the Montavio girl is the best bargaining chip we have.”
Someone yells, and his voice sounds distant, like he’s yelling down a hall. I wonder where we are. Seems like the basement of a warehouse or something. I barely refrain from rolling my eyes. Original.
The voice becomes louder. “Ace, the boss wants to talk to you.”
Ace. Noted.
The guy pointing the gun at me kicks me on his way out, and without missing a beat, I trip him. He goes sprawling, falls hard but braces himself on his arm, and swings his gun back at me, cocking it.
“Ace! He ain’t in a patient mood.”
He curses under his breath. “Gonna kick your ass, you son of a bitch,” he snarls before he gets to his feet and hurries to the door.
“Look forward to it!” I yell after him.
The door shuts hard behind him, plunging us back into darkness.
We sit in silence for only seconds before Vivia starts to talk. “So you think it’s—”
“Shh.” I shove her back with mine.
“So you get to—”
“Shut up,” I hiss. “I’m trying to hear anything that could tell me where we are.”
She’s quiet, but I can feel her fuming with her back against mine. I don’t give a shit, I’m not happy about this situation either.
I keep my voice low. “What do you hear? Whisper.”
She’s silent for another moment. “Water, but it seems distant.” We’re both silent as we hear the unmistakable sound of a plane flying overhead. I hear her breathing along with mine as we continue to listen, when in the distance I hear one short blast of a horn. It’s a ship’s signal.
“The wharf,” she whispers.
“Bingo.”
Jesus, it kills me knowing we’re right in the North End. The Rossi family owns so much property here, there’s likely a few of them nearby. Backup and a rescue team within five minutes from here. One of our own could be ordering a cappuccino within earshot of us.
“Wharf could be a problem,” I whisper to her. “Means we could be taken on a plane or boat easily.”
“Yeah.”
I wonder if we’re bugged.
“What do you remember?” I ask her.
“We were chased into someone’s backyard. They cornered us. Destroyed the fence. Killed Gray, drugged me. I saw them hit you before I passed out, and that’s all I remember.”