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)
“Vigilantes?”
“Yeah. They do a lot of good in the area. Keep the riffraff to a minimum in their city. At least, they’re working on cleaning it up. Still several gangs underground and slums on the outskirts that need serious attention, but they’re working on it.”
Millie snorted. “Rich?”
“Oh, yeah. Loaded.”
“Trying to make themselves feel good.”
Shadow frowned at that. “Maybe. But I always got the sense they really wanted to help. Especially since Alex’s woman came from the streets. She makes sure money goes where it needs to. As to the policing of the streets? I have no idea how they do it. They were just starting to intensify that part when I first met them.” He shrugged. “We don’t get up that way too much.”
The plane shuddered. Millie stiffened, her hand going to his shoulder to steady herself. Her fingers dug into his skin almost painfully. The color drained from her face, and she sat next to him and fastened her seat belt quickly.
“We just took off an hour ago. What could possibly be wrong?”
“Relax, sugar,” he said, trying to soothe her when just minutes before he’d been irritated. Maybe not at her so much as himself for crowding her and even implying sexual innuendo. “It’s just turbulence.”
“That’s what they said last time, too. Plane crashed.”
“Well, if it makes you feel better, this is a cargo plane.” He pointed to the bulkhead on the far side. “Parachutes. The back of the plane opens. If it looks like we’re gonna crash, we’ll just put on the parachutes, open up, and jump.”
“Blyad!”
Shadow couldn’t help it. He chuckled. “You’re so fearless. I never thought you’d need sedation on a plane ride.”
She actually hissed at him. Like a little cat. “I do not need sedation! I just hate flying!’
“Hey.” He raised his hands. “I meant no offense. You just seem a little… tense.”
“When we hopped plane out of Belarus, Victor had us shot down. All the while, the pilot kept telling us everything would be fine. I have no idea how we survived, but I’m not anxious to repeat experience.”
“Understandable. How’d the pilot fare?”
She snorted. “He died. Firefight few hours later. Besides, seems you’ve had your own bad experience. Why’d you automatically assume I thought you’d try to rape me?”
Fuck. “It’s a long story. Not sure we have time for trivial things like personal issues when we need to plan this.” It was a deflection, and he could tell she knew it, too, but she let it go. “Cain has Data, our intel guy, pulling the blueprints of the place they’re holding Katya. Once we have that, we’ll need to focus on making a plan.”
“I know building.” Millie shrugged. “I’ll get in and get her. You guys kill that scum, Victor. We leave. Easy.”
“She’s always been like that,” Venus supplied from her seat on the other side of the plane. “Her idea of planning to do it as she’s running straight into fray.” She shrugged. “A fly-by-seat-of-pants kind of gal.”
“Da,” Millie agreed, but she looked angry. “But I get results. Better than spending half day planning only to bail at end because you broke nail.”
“I did not break nail!” Venus snapped. “Backup got delayed. If we’d gone back in for Katya and our mother without help, we’d both be dead!”
“You don’t know that,” Millie bit back. “Because you wouldn’t even try!”
“All right, that’s enough.” Shadow raised his voice just enough to get the women’s attention, glancing at both of them. “No use crying over spilt milk. It’s over. Only thing we can do now is try to get the girl out.”
“It’s way more difficult now than before,” Millie said. “If we can’t disable trackers in her body, we fail. We fail, she dies.”
“You don’t know that.” Venus wasn’t giving up. “We could get her to U.S., and Giovanni could get trackers out then.”
“Not if they kill us all first. Mikhail suspected at least one tracker was explosive. I can’t confirm it is, but I can’t confirm it’s safe either.”
Venus stared at her a long time. “You’re making this up. Why? I have no idea. Suka!”
Instead of lashing out or attacking Venus, Millie just smiled. “Take that chance if you want. Suka. But she’s my sister, too. And I raised her more than Mama before we left. I won’t let you take chances with her life to save your own ass yet again.”
To Shadow’s surprise, it was Venus who launched herself at Millie. The smaller woman barely got her seat belt off before Venus was on her. Millie ducked under and backed away to give herself time to make a stand. When Venus charged again, Millie was ready.
She sidestepped the larger woman and hiked a knee into her middle. Venus winced but kept moving. Venus kept pushing, trying to get closer to Millie. Both landed a few blows, but nothing significant. Until Millie tripped her up. Venus stumbled, and Millie was on her.