Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107079 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 535(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107079 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 535(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
Alison slipped her arm around my shoulders. As I inhaled, I caught the soft, vanilla scent of her skin and all my senses woke...but like when I’d comforted her in the graveyard, it wasn’t sexual. This was about support. She’s so many things to me...
Radimir burst into the room. “We need to get to the casino. Right now.”
The fear in his voice made me not ask questions. Yakov would have to wait. We ran to the cars.
The casino was in uproar. My staff were arguing with men in suits. The state police were there, herding gamblers away from the gaming tables. The gamblers were clutching handfuls of chips, which they were being told they now couldn’t cash in, and everyone was yelling at everyone else. Worst of all, a news crew was filming the whole thing. I snatched a piece of paper from one of the suits and read it.
We’d lost our gambling license.
“That’s impossible,” I told Radimir. “We earned that license. Legally. We ticked every fucking box.”
“This is Grushin,” said Alison. “He’s doing exactly what he said he’d do. He must have bribed the head of the gaming board.”
Mikhail shook his head. “Not possible. I know the man. We looked at bribing him, but he’s a Boy Scout. Wouldn’t take a bribe. Grushin must have some other hold on him.”
The men in suits started hustling me out of the casino. As my family was pushed towards the glass doors, I could feel the anger building into a scalding hurricane. The casino’s my proudest achievement, and Grushin had taken it from me in just a few hours. “You were right,” I admitted to Mikhail. “I underestimated this guy.”
We were shoved through the doors and onto the street. A whole swarm of news crews saw us and ran towards us. “Go,” I whispered to Alison and pushed her away. The FBI was still looking for her: I didn’t want her on the front page of every news website. She nodded quickly and split off from us, becoming just another anonymous gambler in the crowd.
Reporters surrounded us, yelling questions. I straightened my jacket and stepped forward, telling everyone how this was just a mistake, how our legitimate business had been unfairly targeted, and how we’d be appealing the decision. But between questions, I kept catching Radimir’s worried glances. This was very, very bad. Not only was it a PR nightmare for our family, but losing the casino put a huge hole in our finances. It wasn’t just a money maker; it was how we laundered a lot of our cash, and if it wasn’t operating, we couldn’t turn our illegal money into legal funds that Radimir could invest. I could feel sweat beading on my forehead. This side of the business was my thing, and it was me who’d turned down Grushin’s ultimatum. It was up to me to fix this, and I had no idea how. My chest had gone tight: Jesus, I can hardly breathe.
The reporters turned to Mikhail for a moment, and he gave them one of his warm, engaging smiles, batting their questions away effortlessly. Radimir took the opportunity to pull me aside. I spoke before he could. “I know this is my fault,” I told him. “If I’d handed over Alison…”
But to my surprise, Radimir shook his head and scowled, then nodded to where Alison was watching from across the street. “I don’t like cops,” he told me, “But I can see how you feel about each other. Handing her over wasn’t an option, any more than I could hand over Bronwyn.” He glanced between Alison and me, then tugged his waistcoat straight. “But I need you two to stop Grushin before he does any more damage.”
I nodded, shocked. Then I locked eyes with Alison, and she gave me a little nod of support. I sucked in a breath, and this time, my lungs actually filled. For the first time, I realized I had someone I trusted to share the load.
But would it be enough?
48
GENNADIY
Alison went to work. First, she called her hacker friend in New York and asked her to look into the head of the gaming board, to try to figure out the hold Grushin had over him. Then she took over the dining room and started pinning names and photos to the wall, mapping out everything we knew about Grushin. My stomach knotted when I saw Yakov’s name there. How could he do this to me?
I watched Alison as she tapped away on a laptop, utterly immersed. Only last week, she’d sat in the FBI office looking up at pictures of Valentin and Radimir and me on the wall, figuring out our network. Now she was working to save us.
She stood, crossed her arms, and stared at the map of names and faces. She began to do that thing where she rose up on her toes like a dancer and then sank back down as she thought, and I watched, hypnotized. Then she darted forward and added another detail. God, she was good at this. It was what she was born to do. But—my chest tightened—I couldn’t see any way that could work. Even if we managed to stop Grushin and clear her name, she couldn’t go back to the FBI if she was in my bed every night. And I couldn’t give up the Bratva any more than I could give up breathing.