Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 82881 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 414(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82881 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 414(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
“Have you dealt with him?” I ask Crue.
“I’ve had dealings with him in the past. He’s easy to work with, and his guns are always top quality. And, as Dawson said, he’s good at what he does.”
The problem I face is the agreement River’s put in place to pay off my brother’s interest. If I have to go with him for two business meetings, then we look like a united front. People come to me for meetings, not the other way around. And if River and I are associated, then people will assume he’s bought into our territory. I need to weigh the options as to which offers the greatest gain. Either I bring him in and permit him free rein to do business dealings for a cut or I dispose of him permanently. But I don’t want to tarnish our name by not honoring a business deal.
Dawson breaks me out of my thoughts as he says, “He’s been asking a lot about you.” He seems to be looking for some kind of reaction. When I don’t give him one, he adds, “He’s paid you?”
“He has,” I say bitterly. Sure, the fucker gave me a million dollars for a conversation, but due to unforeseen complications, we have surpassed that stage. Not that I would tell either of these fuckers that.
“And that means…?” Dawson lets the question hang.
“I may let him in,” I say, hating every bit of it. I’m literally backed into a corner. Not one I intend to stay in for long. But considering putting an outright hit on him is out of the question, I need to be cunning in other ways.
Despite my hatred for the man, there may be a lot of money made if I play my cards right. And that’s the one thing that I’ll put above my indifference of a person. What money can I make in the process?
“From what I’ve heard, it’s been well over one million that he’s paid you. Someone even mentioned ten million.”
Gossips. The lot of them. Dawson and River have probably spoken, but I’m not the least bit curious about what, especially if it includes me.
“Buy-ins are getting more and more expensive.” I smile.
“Keep it clean. We don’t need unwanted attention,” Crue adds.
I scoff. As if I’m going to let any man tell me what to do. And it’s slightly hypocritical of him to say that. “That’s funny coming from you. Did you not shoot your wife’s boss in the head?”
His jaw tics at the reminder. It’s not like he can kill him again, but with the look in his eyes, he would if he could.
“He took videos of my wife. Of course I did,” he says simply.
“So you’re saying, if it comes to a loved one, then it’s acceptable?” I sarcastically ask.
“Speaking of loved ones, where is Alek?” Dawson inquires. It’s a hard slap back into reality. “Not that we don’t love dealing with you, Anya, but it’s been months. Where is he?”
That’s the same thing I’d like to know.
Where the fuck is my brother? And why isn’t he at least returning my calls?
I look at my phone. My screen saver is a picture of us when we were just kids. Neither of us is smiling, but it’s the only one I have of us from back then. We didn’t have parents to keep memories of us. It was just us. So when I found this at my foster mother’s house, I took it and kept it and added it to my phone. It’s an image only I can see with facial recognition, because I’ll be damned if I let anyone see any type of weakness.
While those days were hard, knowing that I’ve had the same person all my life, even from the womb, I think has somehow gotten me this far.
And I hope it will continue to do so.
But now it leaves an empty space in my life. And a deeper unanswered question—why did he leave me behind?
Whatever his reason to leave, did he really not think I could help him? After everything we’ve built together?
“Has he run away?” Crue asks, and I don’t know how to answer that. I don’t know what he did. And I hate that, the not knowing. Imagine having someone in your life constantly and then one day they’re gone. I’m not referring to a life partner. I’m talking about someone I shared a womb with, for fuck’s sake. That is a different thing altogether. No life partner would ever come close.
At least that’s what I tell myself.
Maybe it’s different for Alek. He doesn’t really like to talk much as it is, and I’m the person he talks to the most. And even then, he uses as few words as possible.
“I doubt it,” I say.
I try my hardest to push the uncertainty down. I won’t show weakness, especially in front of these two men. But I owe them at the very least, the answers I can give, considering in their own silent way they’ve also supported me during this time.