Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 75968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
“Trust me, I want to do this.” I wanted to walk away from the table while I still had a chance. I’d hit the jackpot with Fleur, and I wouldn’t play another hand. Just take my winnings and walk. “Sometimes shit happens, and it changes you—and I’m fucking changed. I can’t go back. I can’t live another day when I’m not the only one with a target on my back.” I shouldn’t even let her stay, not after I hadn’t saved her. My brother was her hero, when it should have been me. I would never forgive myself for it, but I was fucking weak and so damn in love that I couldn’t do the right thing. “But I need to end this first. I need to kill Ivan, restore order in this city, and then hand the keys to Luca.”
She stared at me for a long time. “Are you sure?”
“The only thing I’ve ever been sure of is you.”
Her eyes flicked away as they softened, like the words pierced her heart when they left mine.
“I hate to do this, but Luca is on his way to take you.”
Her eyes snapped back to me. “What? Now?”
“Yes.”
“Why—”
“I have to finish this.”
“But you mean now?”
“It has to be now. Ivan has retreated, the gangs have loosened their loyalty, it’s chaos. If I wait, he might flee or hit me again.” And his death was the only thing that would satisfy my blood lust.
“But you need Luca.”
“He’s the only person I trust right now. He’ll die for you.”
Her eyes started to water. “I just came back to you. I don’t want to go. I don’t want you to go—”
“Sweetheart.” I cupped her face, and she immediately grabbed on to my wrists. “I know how brave you are. I know how strong you are. I need you to be those things for a little longer. Will you please do this for me?”
She tilted her head down, her eyes glistening and wet. She sniffled, sucking back the tears before they could fall. “Yes.”
I didn’t want to leave her again, but I wouldn’t rest or eat or sleep until he was fucking dead. He would pay for what he’d done to my girl. For what he’d done to my city. “Attagirl.”
Luca took off with Fleur. I told him not to tell anyone where he was going, not even me.
When I walked back into the house, Godric hung up the phone. “He knows.”
“How long?”
“That, I don’t know.”
“You know where he is?”
“He’s either calling in favors and headed this way—or he’s fleeing.”
“He doesn’t seem like a runner.”
Godric shook his head. “I know he’s been using one of Sylvestre’s buildings for a headquarters. I suspect that’s where he is.”
Sylvestre was one of my partners. I’d known him for years. I knew he wasn’t thrilled about the change in order, but I didn’t suspect him to be such a snake. “How many more of my guys have rolled on me?”
He turned his stare on me, and a beat passed before he answered. “It wasn’t personal, Bastien. They always spoke highly of you, just disagreed with your ideologies. It’s just business.”
“Feels pretty personal to me.”
“How are you going to handle this?”
I gave a slight shake of my head. “That’s for my replacement to decide. I just need to remove Ivan from power and bring order back to the city.”
He had no reaction to that, just studied my face with stoic calmness. “Alright.”
“Call your guys, and I’ll call mine.”
“He’ll expect us.”
“Good. I want that asshole to know I’m coming.”
We were in the back seat together, the driver taking us across town to where Ivan was located. We had a line of cars, and President Martin had evacuated the streets and cited a terrorist situation. It was already on the news, reporters saying a terrorist group had planned an attack on the city but was being neutralized. It was a decent cover-up and somewhat truthful.
That would be a dead giveaway to Ivan, but it didn’t matter now. He was dead, regardless of whether he had a heads-up or not.
Godric glanced at his phone when a text came in. “He’s injured.”
I watched the buildings go by, the city hustling and bustling even though it was now late morning. We’d never done a hit like this smack in the middle of the day. We always waited for the cover of nightfall, but we didn’t have a choice. Ivan probably assumed he was safe until he found a new plan.
But he was wrong. “Sounds like men are rolling on him now.”
“When they found out he took Fleur, their loyalty wavered.”
That iced my wrath—but only slightly.
Godric had this innate apathy to him as he stared out the window. He’d been that way since we were teenagers, like he was permanently numb to the world around him. But when he was a kid and we played with dinosaurs together and roughhoused in the snow, he wasn’t. It made me wonder if our father’s toll really had been worse for him than it was for me.