Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 120165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
I’d always been proud that I scared people. Until now.
“Get away from me.” This time, it was a plea. When her eyes filled with tears, I felt that protective urge take hold of me, and I reached for her, but she flinched back.
I wanted to kill the thing that was scaring her. But the thing that was scaring her was me.
I couldn’t fix it.
I stepped back, my hands raised in submission.
And for the second time in a day, I walked away from her.
14
BRONWYN
He killed him. I kept seeing it in my head, the bald man’s head hitting the shower stall. He killed him.
I’d always known he was a criminal. But all those little moments in the bookstore had made me convince myself, stupidly, that there was warmth in him, hidden away under all that ice.
But no. He really was a monster.
I watched him go, silent tears flooding down my cheeks. I’d hurt before, when he’d walked out on me. But this was much, much worse. I’d been completely wrong about him, I was scared and shaken and there was no one I could go to, no one I could tell. Baba was too ill. Jen and my other friends I couldn’t face: I felt too stupid. Yeah, I knew he was a gangster, but I thought he wasn’t like the others.
You fucking idiot, Bronwyn.
Should I go to the police? That would have consequences. This was the Russian mafia, they could hurt me or hurt Baba to get to me. I knew now what he was capable of.
But the hardest part was...even now, I still couldn’t shake the feeling that he wouldn’t hurt me. A traitorous little part of me wondered, is this why he walked out on me? To keep me away from all this?
Even now, I still wanted to believe in him.
15
RADIMIR
For the next three days, I stomped around in an even fouler mood than normal. I couldn’t stop seeing Bronwyn’s horrified face, or hearing her tell me to get away from her. I should never have given in to that first moment of weakness, when I’d seen her in the bookstore. I’d fucked up badly.
But it was much worse than I thought.
I was standing on the top floor of a half-built tower block when it happened. The block was one of my pet projects, paid for by the tens of millions we’d made from our gambling operations, and I was grilling the foreman on why construction was behind.
Then Gennadiy stepped out of the elevator, followed by Valentin and Mikhail. The look in Gennadiy’s eyes was murderous. Valentin didn’t look much happier and even the always-upbeat Mikhail looked grim.
“Tell your crew to take a break,” I told the foreman, and he quickly cleared his people from the building. When I was sure we were alone, I turned to Gennadiy. “What’s up?”
Gennadiy pushed his phone under my nose. “This. This is what’s up.”
He played a video. Security camera footage, the outside of Borislav’s apartment building seen from across the street. There was me, head down, hurrying up to the front door and punching in the access code…
...my stomach lurched as Bronwyn raced up the steps, caught the door and followed me in.
I stayed silent and sweated it out. Maybe I could pretend she was a random civilian, some tenant who’d happened to walk in just after me. But the security footage kept playing. Bronwyn came charging out of the door and I chased after her.
“Our hacker deleted the footage from the buildings across the street like he was supposed to, but he was so worried by what he saw, he sent me a copy. What the fuck is this?” snarled Gennadiy.
I faced off against him, glaring. I was still his Pakhan, his boss. But Valentin got between us. “Please, brother. Tell us what this is so we can fix it.”
I sighed and the fight went out of me. They were only trying to protect me from myself. I ran a hand through my hair and told them about Bronwyn.
Gennadiy stared at me. “All this because you shoved your dick in some woman?”
“It’s not like that!” I snapped.
Gennadiy and Valentin looked at each other, worried. “What is it like?” asked Gennadiy.
I said nothing, fuming.
“Why was she following you?” Mikhail wanted to know.
“I think she was mad at me.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “After we fucked, I... left her there.”
“You just left?” Mikhail raised his eyes to heaven. “Did I teach you boys nothing about women?”
Valentin stepped forward. “Radimir, you say she saw you kill Borislav. She’s a witness.”
“She won’t go to the police,” I said firmly.
Gennadiy shook his head. “You don’t know that.”
“I do,” I told him. “I can control her.”
Mikhail sighed. “Radimir, she’s a woman. God himself couldn’t control her!”
Gennadiy waved his phone at me. “This video is gone, but what if there are other cameras we don’t know about? What if a passer-by saw the two of you? Even if she doesn’t go to the police, the police might come to her!” He paced, too angry to stay still. “She didn’t just witness a murder, she knows the biggest secret there is: that it was us who killed Borislav! Have you thought about what happens if one of the other families gets to her? How many people have seen you going into this bookstore of hers? How many have guessed that there’s something between you? What if they get hold of her to use as leverage against you? Will she hold her tongue when they’re pulling her fingernails out?”