Total pages in book: 39
Estimated words: 36597 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 183(@200wpm)___ 146(@250wpm)___ 122(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36597 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 183(@200wpm)___ 146(@250wpm)___ 122(@300wpm)
The crowd roared its approval. Shadow just grinned. “Yeah, I’m totally in love.”
“You realize she’s not like Fury’s woman, da? She could kick your ass anytime she wants.”
“Yeah,” Shadow said, only half paying attention. His focus was entirely on the small woman in the corner. As men helped the other fighter to his feet, he finally got his bearings and shrugged the men off him. With a rage-filled battle cry, he charged Millie once again.
At first, she didn’t move. Then, at the very last instant, she turned, driving the heel of her hand with the force of her body weight straight into the guy’s throat. The force of her strike, combined with the guy’s forward momentum, was too much for his fragile neck. He dropped to the ground writhing and clutching at his throat, gasping for breath. This time, since he’d refused to leave the ring the first time, everyone just waited to see what would happen. The crowd grew quiet while the fighter’s last death rattles finished. He finally stilled, his hands at his neck, eyes wide in disbelief as his face went slack in death. Then the crowd roared its approval. Yeah. Millie had just crushed her opponent’s windpipe, killing him.
She’d just killed a man. Granted, the guy was coming for her back like a coward. But it really shouldn’t have turned Shadow on. It did. Shadow grinned, crossing his arms over his chest. “Girl has some fight in her.”
“That she does,” Venus agreed.
They made their way to Millie’s corner where she’d calmly turned back, facing the outside of the cage. Instead of smoking a joint, she took a long pull of vodka straight from the bottle. Shadow raised an eyebrow at Venus, who just shrugged. Finally, Millie’s gaze fell to her sister. Instead of a warm greeting, Millie just scowled, spitting on the mat as she eyed her sister. Then she turned her back on them. Shadow was certain she hadn’t even registered his presence. If she did, she didn’t expect him to be with Venus. Which was fine with him. The longer she remained oblivious to him, the more time he had to study her.
When the announcer told them all bets were final, signaling the end of the competition, Millie headed for the cage door. Shadow expected Venus would hurry to meet her sister, but the woman just stood there, running her sharpened nails back and forth across one of the cage bars.
“Shouldn’t we go to her?”
Venus shrugged. “Nyet. She will come to me.”
Sure enough, a few minutes later, the little pixie came stomping over to her older sister. “This better be good.”
“Mama is dead.”
“Jesus, Venus,” Shadow muttered. “Way to soften the blow.”
Venus just shrugged. “Life isn’t soft, you big pussy. She learned that long ago. Same as me.”
Sure enough, Millie just looked from Venus to Shadow and back. Shadow got the sense she’d dismissed him the second she saw him. Which kind of made him want to grunt and flex his muscles at her. Show her he was not, indeed, a pussy.
“Who’s the big pussy?” Millie asked, quirking an eyebrow. Shadow had to fight a grin and do his best to scowl. He really liked this girl. She might not grin at him now, but he’d just bet she was having a ball at his expense.
“Just some guy who thinks women need protection.” Venus rolled her eyes at him. “We need to talk.”
Millie just glared at Venus. In all the time he’d been around Venus since he came to Salvation’s Bane, he’d never seen anyone -- man or woman -- look at the woman the way her sister did. No one would dare. Even the men gave her a wide berth sometimes.
“Meet me at docks in an hour.”
“Nyet,” Venus said immediately. “We go now.”
“Ty khochesh’ vstretit’sya? Ty delayesh’ eto v moye vremya. Ne vash,” Millie said, glancing at Shadow and smirking. As if he didn’t know exactly what she’d said.
“Darlin’,” he drawled. “There’s a nine-year-old little girl out there who says we can’t do this on your time. You can be part of the solution or not, but we leave for Belarus in an hour. So yeah. We doin’ this on our time.”
Millie gave him another look, this one a little more involved. She didn’t dismiss him out of hand like before. Without taking her clear blue gaze from his, she asked Venus, “Who did you say pussy is?”
“Name’s Shadow,” he said before Venus could answer. “I work with your sister.”
“He also is adept at eavesdropping. Heard conversation I had with friend in FSB. My friend said our mother is dead and her husband is looking to get rid of Katya. He didn’t know why, only that time was of the essence.”
“Blyad!” Millie looked like she wanted to punch something, but settled for staring at Venus with a hard glare. “You’re sure? You’re absolutely sure? Did he go back to Russia?”