Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 52455 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 262(@200wpm)___ 210(@250wpm)___ 175(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 52455 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 262(@200wpm)___ 210(@250wpm)___ 175(@300wpm)
And then he’s coming, deep in my ass. Another part of me has ceded to his rule. But I don’t care because he cleans me up so carefully and rolls us to a fresh, clean section of the king bed so I can fall asleep in his arms.
I wake to him bandaging me. I still haven’t seen what he carved into me, but I can feel it throbbing through my chest like it went all the way to my back. The soreness extends into my left arm.
He pauses, his hand hovering over the white bandage. A shark’s smile hovers at the corner of his mouth. He’s happy with his work.
He feeds me some pain pills and holds a glass of water to my lips. The pain recedes behind a gauzy curtain.
“Sleep,” he orders. “It’s still late.”
It must be night. I savor this sliver of the outside world he’s gifted me. “Late?”
“Yes.” Another kiss. In the darkness, he moves beside me, warm and familiar. A partner, a trusted lover, coaxing me back to sleep. “I’ll wake you in the morning.”
Mornings with Victor, barefoot and shirtless in the kitchen. Eggs. Pancakes. I fall back asleep, smiling.
Victor
I’ve never slept as well as I do with Lula. Even as a boy, I rested in fits and starts, listening to the cacophony of the crime-ridden neighborhood where we could afford to live. Angry voices, slamming doors, back-firing cars and shots fired, I never got used to it. I learned to sleep lightly, to startle awake, warn my mother, and protect her.
But now I rest deeply and fully, my arms full of my captive. My vicious angel.
She makes me feel things, and I’m not used to feeling things. But the small, stunted part of me recognizes that she is the only one who can awaken these emotions. I need her close. She is my soul.
After two REM cycles, I rise reluctantly. I leave Lula sleeping on her back, the bandage over my initials bright in the darkness, and head to the locked drawer in the kitchen that holds the most important of my burner phones.
I wait seven minutes before making the call.
“I’m here,” Spiro answers. Over the past few days, I’ve worked to gain his trust. Now, I’ll learn if my efforts paid off.
“Do we have an agreement?”
Spiro pauses. “What’s it worth to you?”
“Name your price.”
He does, and when I agree to it, he tells me the information I asked for. All of it.
I hang up, heavy with the news I have for Lula.
Our time of reprieve is over. Last night marked a turning point for us. I know she felt it.
Now it’s time to learn whether it was the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end.
Lula
I wake slowly and stretch, wincing as it pulls the tender skin above my left breast. Victor’s left more painkillers beside me and a glass of water. Considerate sadist.
As I have so many mornings, I pad out of the bedroom and find him at the stove, making a meal. Unlike most mornings, I almost smile when I see him clad all in black, his white-blond head in the fridge. His T-shirt shows off the taut muscles and veins of his forearms.
My mouth waters. “Morning.”
He signals me to Come, and when I do, he sets a bluish smoothie in front of me. I didn’t even hear the blender. I taste yogurt and berries.
He watches me drink it, his face a beautiful mask. Okay? Another hand signal. He uses them constantly now, especially when he’s teaching me how to attack someone with a knife.
“A little sore. Let’s go easy on training today.” I pretend to roll my shoulder but don’t move it more than an inch.
Victor plants his hands on the island, staring at the glittering quartz.
He’s not usually this moody. Something’s wrong.
I set the glass down. “What? What is it?”
“I know who the mole is,” he rasps.
He doesn’t have to explain. The mole, the person who infiltrated our family and passed on information to Stephanos. It would have to be someone trusted to get the intel Stephanos seemed to get, intel that kept him one step ahead of us at all times.
Names and faces flit through my head. “Who?” I know I’m not going to like the answer.
“Gino.”
I close my eyes and accept this bullet to the heart. My stupid, selfish brother. “That fool.” It makes sense. He burned through his trust so quickly. He liked spending money and expected it to come easy. And as the son of one of the top family members, he had access to anything. No one would question his loyalty.
A shadow falls over me. Victor has come around the island to be close to me, and despite my roiling stomach, the hairs on my arms raise a second before he touches me. “Lula, I’m sorry.”