Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 76846 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76846 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
He was breathing heavily, sweat cascading down his face, mingling with the cuts on his cheek and lip, turning it all a light pink color as it dropped off his chin and onto his white shirt.
“What’s this?” I asked, gaze moving around to Rico, Renzo, and Saff.
Of the three, it was the small, blue-haired Saff who was out of breath with roughed-up knuckles.
“The leader of the 34th Street crew,” Saff said, gesturing toward him before turning to grab a bottle of water, and taking a long sip.
“We have another crew working with the Russians,” Renzo explained, his dark gaze landing on the guy who, despite the way he was trying to snarl at us, looked close to pissing himself.
“Just so happened to be helping my bagman around that area today, and I saw him get out of the car with one of those fucks,” Saff said. “So I had one of my guys bring a car, threw his ass in it, and brought him here for some questioning.”
I was honestly surprised he was still breathing. Saff had a raging temper when she was riled. And it was often explosive and violent. The guy was lucky a few bruises and cuts were all he had to show for his betrayal. So far. Lord knew we weren’t done with him.
I nodded at Renzo, then moved toward the office. “Did we do the hit between the other crews yet?” I asked.
“It’s supposed to go down tomorrow night. The leader of one of the crews was out of town, but we hear he should be back sometime tonight. So by tomorrow, he should be back on the street again. Then we’ll strike.”
“What are our plans with this one?” I asked, jerking my head over toward him as Saff and Rico joined us.
“Taking out another crew cuts off another stream of income,” Rico said, exhaling hard.
We all got his frustration. Back in the day, we wouldn’t have hesitated. You fucked us over, you went down for it. The thing with growing an organization, though, was that there were men, women, and children who relied on the stability we provided.
We were already taking out two whole crews.
And, sure, others would come up and take their place, but it would require time.
So losing a third revenue stream was really pushing it.
“So what are the options?”
“One, we finish him, then put one of our men in charge of that crew. Move an associate over to that instead,” Rico said. “Sure plenty of ‘em would welcome the opportunity.”
“And two?” I asked, getting a grumble out of Saff.
“Clearly, Saff doesn’t like this one,” Rico said, shooting her a smirk, the kind a brother gave a pain-in-the-ass little sister. Which, admittedly, was what Saff was to him sometimes. Since Saff often acted before thinking of the family first. And Rico was a family man through and through.
“But the other option is to see if we can turn him, make him double-cross the Russians. See if we can get some decent intel out of him, since just surveilling isn’t going to cut it when they’re so careful.”
I nodded at that.
“Which way are you leaning?” I asked, looking at Renzo.
“So, is this some Soylent Green shit going on around here now?” Dav’s voice called from the back room, making all of us let out a chuckle as he made his way toward us. “Because I’ve been buying the meat assuming it wasn’t human, man,” he said, smiling at Rico.
“Human would be cheaper,” Rico admitted, sighing hard, and it was interesting to see him worrying about anything other than the family itself. “Short of it is this fuck is working with the Russians. We’re trying to figure out if we kill him, or we turn him into our spy.”
“Want me to take a few rounds with him?” Dav asked, a wicked look rising on his face, conjuring up images of him on the floor on top of one of Cinna’s attackers, his finger digging into his eye sockets.
“If I want him blind, I’ll know who to call,” Saff said, lips curved up slightly.
“As opposed to having his balls chopped off?” Dav shot back.
“That was one time!” Saff insisted, narrowing her eyes at him. “And he had it coming. You don’t want to get neutered, don’t act like a dog. Simple enough.”
“Focus, you two,” Renzo said, shaking his head. The light in his eyes, though, said he was amused by their banter.
“So, did you need something from me?” I asked, wondering why I was here when they had more than enough hands on deck.
“Seems like he’s working directly with Dimitri,” Rico told me.
“That’s… pretty high-ranking,” I said, brows lifting.
“Yeah,” he agreed. “So we want to know if you think it’s possible to use this guy against them, or if it is too risky with it being Dimitri.”