Total pages in book: 247
Estimated words: 248926 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1245(@200wpm)___ 996(@250wpm)___ 830(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 248926 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1245(@200wpm)___ 996(@250wpm)___ 830(@300wpm)
Paolo ran over to me. His tiny body slammed into my legs. I bent my knees and lifted him. “Hey, baby. I’m so sorry.”
Paolo wrapped those little arms around my neck and squeezed me so hard, I thought I might choke.
“Take!” Paolo shivered against me. “Take.”
“I know, baby.” I carried him off to the elevators. “They took you.”
Still shivering, he lay his head on my shoulder. “Take, mysh.”
“Yes. I know.” I felt his heart beating madly against his ribcage. “No more bad people. All gone now.”
“Mysh.”
“I will never let you go.” Continuing forward, I rubbed circles on his back.
One of Valentina’s men spoke, “What do we do with this last woman?”
Valentina responded, “No one survives when they come for us.”
The woman screamed, “Please! Please, don’t—”
Several shots rang out behind me.
I continued walking.
And no guilt came from her death, only numbness.
That fact scared me more than anything else.
Everyone got on the one elevator without my dead guard. Blue pushed the top floor’s button.
The doors closed.
The elevator rose.
Silent, I rubbed Paolo’s back, knowing that everything would be okay now that I had him with me.
A minute later, we arrived on the top floor and left the elevator.
Valentina’s guards jumped ahead of us.
One spoke, “There are already tons of Mancuso in the hotel. We must be careful when we enter the stairwell.”
I nodded.
We rushed to the door.
He opened it and gestured for us to enter.
Below us, tons of footsteps sounded inside the stairwell. Men barked Italian to each other.
We crept up to the final flight of stairs leading to the roof.
I shouldn’t have, but I checked over the railing.
Shit!
It wasn’t tons of men. It was hundreds of them, barreling up the stairs. Groups rushed into each level. They must have been searching for us and any Russians in the building. Only God knew what they planned to do when they caught us.
Holy shit.
We crept up the stairs and hit the roof.
Three helicopters waited for us with pilots sitting in them.
Baba hurried forward. Her eyes were red like she had been crying for a while. She rang her fists in the air. “Dear God! I planned to jump off this roof if you said something happened to him.”
I shook my head. “Baba, we don’t need all of that—”
“Give me my little pumpkin.” Baba snatched Paolo out of my arms without asking me or giving me time to let him go.
I held my hands out. “Excuse me?”
She hugged him. Tears spilled out from her eyes. "There's my little pumpkin. right here."
Paolo made no protest. He even curved his tiny mouth into a smile. “Baba.”
“My heart cannot take all of this, little pumpkin.” She carried Paolo away and kissed his cheeks. “Getting into all types of trouble and worrying Baba.”
We all climbed into the helicopters.
The guard that held Harlem earlier, sat in back with my puppy. The poor man’s face was bright red with worry. As soon as he spotted me, he sighed in relief. Surely, things would not have been good for him if he had returned to Kaz without me, yet holding my puppy.
Valentina and her men got in the other helicopter.
The third one remained empty. It would have been for all our men that died in the hallway. Grief hit me.
I'm ready to get out of Italy.
The pilot started our helicopter. The engine rumbled.
When I buckled in my seat, I took out the Black Axe women’s phone and pulled up the picture that I had taken earlier.
The helicopter blades spun. Everyone else hurried to put on their seatbelts.
Paolo whispered in the back, “Take, Baba.”
“Yes. Those naughty people took my little pumpkin because he’s so sweet.”
I texted the picture of the two dead women to Fela and typed a message.
Me: Paolo is mine. Never come for what is mine!
Me: Sincerely,
Me: the Mouse.
The message read delivered.
“Son of a bitch.” I slung the phone out of the helicopter’s small open window and then slid the glass closed. I had considered keeping the phone on me so that Misha could find him, but Fela could have put a tracker in it.
The helicopters rose in the air and took us away.
In the back, Baba sang in Russian to Paolo. Watching her, he raised his tiny fingers to her chin and tapped in the rhythm of her singing.
Blue watched.
I leaned close to Blue. “What is Baba saying? I can barely translate.”
Blue smiled. “She’s singing, ‘Little red berry, Little red berry of mine! In the garden is a little raspberry, My little raspberry—”
My phone rang.
Oh shit. I forgot to call Kaz back.
I answered, “I’m sorry, baby. We are in the helicopters and leaving the hotel—”
“You hung up on me.” Anger rode those words.
“I know. I am so sorry.”
“Twice.”
I smirked. “I will make that up in a way that will help you forget.”
“And you will do so two times in one night.”