Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 105065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 525(@200wpm)___ 420(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 525(@200wpm)___ 420(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
In the Russian bratva, Alexei is known as the Ghost. It’s a privilege to know him in person, since very few people do. The brains of the entire gambling operation, this one right here. Also, considerably the Russian’s most valuable asset. Personal sojourns like this don’t come about often, so already I know this is important.
He has my full attention. Something most people don’t know about Alexei is the lad’s almost full blown deaf. He reads lips very well and does so without being too obvious. The only reason I picked up on it myself was because my nanna did the same. We have a routine where I pretend I don’t know, and he agrees I don’t either.
“To what do I owe this special journey?” I ask.
“Viktor called,” Alexei replies. “The girl. She’s one of yours?”
His words catch me off guard, and Alexei doesn’t miss it. He never misses anything. Before I can calculate a response, I work on sussing out his motives.
Besides the obvious, Alexei has one very blaring weakness. Women. This same weakness urges him to drink the glass of Cognac in his hand. It would also be the very reason for those bloodshot eyes and the darkness on his face for the last few months. Something I can relate to. Women bring about nothing but trouble. Word is this last bird of his really did a number on him. Lucky for me, I’ve a cure for that. Avoiding them entirely.
I’d have figured by now Alexei would be on the same page in that regard. So what in the bleeding hell does he want with the girl? She isn’t my business. But judging by Alexei’s face, whatever the issue is, he’s about to make it my business.
“She’s Irish,” he remarks. “Yes?”
“Aye.” She’s American Irish, but to them it’s all the same.
“So she’s one of yours?”
He wants me to say yes. For that reason alone, the word no lingers on my lips. Trouble. I can feel it coming.
“Right.” I sigh. “What’s this about, lad?”
He sighs too and then leans back against his seat. He knows as well as I do if the girl were ours he’d already be aware of it.
“I believed the girl to be yours,” explains Alexei. “This is what I told Viktor.”
Viktor, as in his boss. Already, I don’t like the direction this is heading.
“Care to tell me why?” I ask.
“Ivan has an issue with her. Viktor would like a trade once the alliance is sealed. The girl for the traitor.”
Fucks sake. I scrub my hands over my head and release a breath. The Russians still don’t know whose been betraying them. As part of the negotiations, Niall has asked that the traitor be handed over to us as payment for Carrick’ death. Something I’m very much looking forward to.
Adding that girl to the deal has caught me off guard.
“Viktor realizes this may take some time,” Alexei adds. “So he asks that you handle it for the time being.”
“Handle it, as in…?”
“Keep her under control.”
A pause falls, and then, “for the sake of the alliance, of course.”
I’ve no blasted idea what this girl’s involved in. And now they want her under our protection? Pure bollocks. Things are too unstable. Too volatile. Alexei is well aware of this. Spotted it from twenty feet away that girl is trouble.
“Ivan feels she is a threat,” Alexei carries on. “Given that she’s a possible witness to our business dealings with her father. Things did not end well with that relationship. Ivan’s been looking for her for years.”
That’s a load of shite if I ever heard one. There’s no way that girl in there has been evading the Russian mob. If that were true, she’d have better sense than to walk into the fights tonight like she did. She didn’t seem the least concerned about them.
I don’t want to ask the next question. But it comes unbidden.
“Have ye any plans for this girl yet?”
Alexei nods, glancing out the window. “She will be given a choice. She can marry one of ours who will take full responsibility for her.”
He doesn’t have to tell me what the flip side of that choice is. There could only be one. They feel she’s a threat, and so this archaic compromise seems to be the girl’s only option at this stage. I might feel some sympathy for her if I wasn’t bound for the same fate myself. The Russians are fond of their arranged marriages. If I’m to take my place by Niall’s side, I will first have to take the leap with one of Viktor’s daughters.
Jaysus Christ.
I’ve no doubt Alexei handpicked me to deliver this information. He believes me to be soft like him. We don’t generally involve women in our business. By giving Viktor his assurances and relinquishing the burden of responsibility to us, the lad’s jacked me arseways. I’m bound by honor to the impending alliance. This is everything we’ve been working for. The means to get my revenge on the man responsible for Carrick’s death and uniting our factions.
And now we must use the girl as a pawn to do it. A big ask. I don’t like it. But I’ve no choice. The syndicate is already on tenuous ground. Things have been shaky between our two factions lately. Suspicion is high. Tensions are higher. A seed of mistrust threatens to bloom into a noxious weed if we don’t get it under wraps now.
“Now that we understand each other,” Alexei says, “I’ll give him your word, yes?”
I don’t like it. But I reach out and shake his hand anyway.
“Ye have my word. I’ll sort her out.”
***
“Jaysus,” Rory whistles. “Did ye see the body on her though?”
“I saw,” I growl. “Now quit banging on about it.”
He raises a brow at me, and I tell him to piss off. I’m not in the mood for his shite. He carries on anyway.
“Seriously though. Those tits… and that ass… goddamn righteous I tell you. Can’t say I blame Donny for getting distracted the way he did.”