Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 47524 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47524 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
For the last six months, they’d been hitting Sergey’s income stream, affecting his relationships with fellow powerful criminal men. The death of Paul Butterworth was just the start. They hadn’t killed anyone else yet, but they had put a dent in some fortunes.
Road had to admit, his favorite was letting a shipment of girls free. There had been media coverage, so there was no way to allow for men to go and round them back up. He’d helped with this little detail.
While Road had been acquiring information for Sergey many years ago, before he’d been punished with a scarred face, he’d also been building contacts. Sergey made a lot of enemies. Road knew those enemies, and now that they were in the right place, he was able to make the calls to help with their cause, without being linked to it. That was another little detail they kept quiet.
If Sergey’s powerful allies realized who was behind all the bad luck that had befallen him, then the finger to point would be at them. As it was, no one knew what they were doing, and to the outside world, Sergey was throwing accusations without fire. He loved it, because it happened to be a game Sergey was most notorious for playing.
“Do you want to tell me what it was about this woman, Road? You don’t act like this, not for anything, and yet you were willing to go into an innocent woman’s house—”
“She’s not innocent,” he said, interrupting him.
Brute shook his head. “Not every woman you meet is going to cause you this kind of grief or pain. They’re not all enemies.”
“You’ve found something rare in Faith, I grant you that, Brute. But remember, I’ve seen what the bitches are like up close and personal. I know they are only after what they can get—more money, more power—and I wasn’t going to stand around and allow anything to happen to this club.”
Road got to his feet. He knew what he’d seen in Dinah Evan’s eyes. The name Sergey Golubev was a name she knew, but he had a feeling it was not for the reason he originally thought.
“Damn it, Road. Don’t go making waves. Not right now. I’m working on something.”
“You’re working on bringing a baby into this world. We know it won’t be long before Faith gives birth. We all know it, but … this is important. You can’t allow him to build his army back up. You just can’t.”
“I’m not going to.”
“Sergey Golubev will strike and he is going to kill us all if we lose this momentum. We need to attack.”
“And we will, but I’m not going to do it at the risk of losing men. Tank is close to being recovered.”
Road shook his head. “We shouldn’t be waiting on this. I know it, you know it, and everyone else knows it.”
“Look, Road—”
“Are we done?” he asked, interrupting for a second time, and seeing the anger flash in Brute’s eye. “Look, you know my thoughts and how I feel about this, and they’re not going to change. I know what we need to do, but then I’ve worked closely with Golubev, I know his strategy. If we don’t keep hitting, he’s going to rise up and come after us, and I don’t want that to happen. He needs to be crushed.”
“He will be.”
“Just so long as it doesn’t come at a cost of killing your wife and kid.” Road got to his feet. “I get it.”
“No, you don’t get it. Clearly, Golubev’s mentality has still rubbed off on you because you’re not seeing the bigger picture.”
“We’re done,” Road said.
Brute opened his mouth but there was a knock at the office door, and there was only one person with that playful knock. “I’ll see myself out.”
Road stepped past Faith, giving her a slight smile before heading toward the kitchen. Being woken up with water splashed on his face wasn’t ideal, and as he went to grab some coffee, he saw Tank in the kitchen, alone.
A lot of the brothers continued to struggle around Tank. The brother had changed a lot since his return. Road felt guilty for not being able to deal with the shit he dished out, but the truth was, after seeing Tank, everything had hit a little too close to home.
He wanted to reach out and touch his own face, but instead he went straight to the coffee machine.
“Not even a ‘good morning’?”
“No man should have to be able to think in the morning without his hit of caffeine.” He took a sip, and nearly spat it out. It tasted so bad, but it certainly had woken him up.
“What the fuck has Faith done to the coffee?” he asked.
“Not Faith, me,” Tank said.
“Why the fuck are you making coffee?”
“Because you evil bastards didn’t offer, and in case you didn’t know, every time Faith made the coffee, it would make her sick, so now she doesn’t have to worry about it.”