Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 94076 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94076 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
“Then how do you know all of this when you’re supposed to be dead?” I demand.
“A select few of the syndicate are still loyal to Angelo. They’re old school. They’ll watch and wait for the inevitable to happen. Luca Moretti is too unpredictable and too arrogant to realize he’s built his rise to glory on a house of cards. One sand shift and it will all come crashing down.”
I’m that sand shift.
I’m going to make sure his world doesn’t just come crashing down.
I’m going to chop it up into a million tiny pieces.
Starting with him.
I think of Hellbringer back at the clubhouse and imagine bringing it down on his flesh.
“Why are you following her?” I demand.
“I promised her father that I’d always watch over her if anything should happen to him.” Remorse is heavy in his tone. “I betrayed her father, and it’s something I can never forgive myself for. If I could at least watch out for her…”
“Does Ella know?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because they tried killing me once. It was a miracle I survived. Until I figure out a way to get her out of the clutches of her brother and Viktor Olicheckoff, I figured it was better to watch.”
“No, it wasn’t.” I can’t believe this guy. He knew what she was going through. Why she would keep her silence. Her silence from me. And he didn’t step in and at least let her know she wasn’t alone. “You could have come to the Knights. Told them everything.”
“The Moretti and the Knights have never held an alliance.”
“But we’re not enemies. You stay out of our way, and we stay out of yours.”
“For that reason, I didn’t know how the Knights would react to knowing who she was. Telling you would’ve put you in a position to take advantage of the situation. Maybe even hurt her—”
“I would never fucking hurt her,” I growl, the fear in my gut getting the better of me. “You should’ve fucking done something.”
“I did what I thought was right.”
“You were fucking wrong.”
“You don’t know these people like I do,” he says, and I can see the regret etched into his face. It haunts him.
“I don’t need to know them to kill them,” I say through gritted teeth. I bring my face close. “Ella is everything to me, and I don’t care what it takes, I’m going to get her back. Now where the fuck is she?”
“Viktor has taken her.”
I think about the supposed Olicheckoff compound Bear and I visited yesterday. “To the Bratva compound?”
Santo looks around the shithole of a motel room. Nothing looks disturbed. No turned-over furniture to indicate a struggle. But her phone is sitting on the small dresser under the window. “No. He would’ve taken her to the Moretti estate.”
“Why the Moretti estate?”
“My guess is he knows about you and Ella.”
“How?”
But I already know the answer.
Someone inside the clubhouse has told him.
Santo looks concerned. “He paid for a virgin bride, son. Now he’s going to hand her back to her brother.”
“Then that’s where I am going.”
“You can’t go alone.”
“Just watch me.”
“They’ll see you coming, and you’ll be dead before you reach the front door.”
“He won’t kill me. They’re not ready for war with the Knights. They would’ve made a move by now if they were.”
“I’m coming with you.”
“No, I need you to visit the clubhouse. Find Beast. Tell him I sent you and let him know what’s happening.” I pause. “And tell him we definitely have a rat inside the clubhouse and to keep every card close to his chest.”
“What are you going to do?”
I look Santo in the eyes. “I’m going to walk right up to the front door and tell the asshole I’ll shoot him in the face if he doesn’t hand over Ella.”
CHAPTER 58
Ella
“Enough of this,” Viktor snaps impatiently, and Luca lets me go. “Your silly games take up too much time.”
Luca doesn’t appreciate the interruption and casts a disapproving glare in the Russian’s direction.
“In good course, Mr. Olicheckoff. Remember, it was you who needed me. Not the other way around.” Luca brings his attention back to me. “He’s too serious for his own good. He should’ve tried to enjoy this more.”
“Enjoy what more?”
“All of it.”
Light gleams on the gold ring on his finger as my mind tries to unscramble the meaning behind what he just said.
Amused by my sudden confusion, Luca laughs. “Well, I guess there is no harm in letting you know. After all, the game seems to have reached its conclusion.”
I grit my teeth. “This was a game?”
But I have a feeling I already know.
“This wasn’t about the recipe, was it,” I say.
Viktor looks irritated. “I already have it. I paid an exorbitant amount of money to a man in a white coat to figure it out.”
“Then why did you send me to the clubhouse?”
“It was your brother who wanted you to—”