Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 107608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
I exit the room silently and carefully walk upstairs, listening for noise. Nothing. I make it to the second bedroom and tap on the floorboards until I find a loose one. Making sure my gloves remain in place, I lift the fake wood to find a knapsack that I pull out and open. The little bastard lied to me. There’s at least three hundred grand in the duffel bag.
Slinging it over my shoulder, I walk out the back door and through many sad-looking, forlorn backyards until I reach my motorcycle. I pause and then decide to walk the other block. I have the bike hidden neatly between two old sheds, and starting her up will just create more noise.
So I walk the other block and knock on a door. Nobody answers. The house is one story with falling shutters, and it may have been green at one point. Now the color is more of a dingy gray fronted by a small patch of burned-out grass in the yard. I knock louder.
The porch light flickers on, and the door opens to reveal a girl who can’t be any older than seventeen. She has at least a two-year-old on her hip. “What do you want?” She’s pretty, though bruised. She has a black eye and marks on her neck. Her hair is long and black, and the baby’s adorable with her little thumb in her mouth.
I drop the knapsack next to her feet. “There’s enough here for you to take off and don’t look back.” She looks at me suspiciously and takes a step back. “Paco and Miguel are dead and Juan is next,” I say. “Reyes is not getting out of prison anytime soon. Take the baby, take the money, and go.”
Turning, I leave her on the porch staring at me. It’s up to her whether she takes a chance at freedom or not. My gut feeling says that she will. I make my way back to my bike and roll it for almost a mile away from the shitty neighborhood before jumping on and starting the ignition.
I find Jose with a group of his buddies partying at a house about fifteen blocks away on Seventh, exactly where Miguel had said. I park in the distance and watch, waiting until Juan comes into sight. I tracked him through Facebook and know exactly what he looks like. He laughs and jokes with buddies, a gun visible at his hipbone.
I stand in the darkness across from the street in a lonely stand of pine trees in front of an abandoned house. He kisses a tall blonde and then saunters down the walkway around four in the morning. The blonde tries to follow him, and when she gets close enough, he turns and punches her in the face. She falls hard on the unforgiving ground.
“I told you, you can’t come home with me. Melissa’s there.” He turns and starts whistling again as he struts down the sidewalk.
I follow on the other side of the street until we reach a more deserted area, and then I let him get ahead of me several yards before I silently cross to his side. The wind has picked up, and a light rain is beginning to fall.
I’m on him before he knows it, and I take him out quickly with a knife I snatched from Miguel’s kitchen earlier. I have all the answers I want. I believed Miguel when he said he didn’t know about the hit on Ella. That had come from Reyes specifically, and I bet he has accepted a contract for her life.
Leaving Juan drowning in his own blood, I move silently through the night back to my bike before I take off the gloves, turn them inside out, and tuck them in my pocket. I’ll burn these clothes even though it’s unlikely the police will do too much forensic testing on these men.
I think idly about dropping by Howard Fissure’s house, but I need to know more about him before I make a move. He probably has security.
I left Garik on Rosalie all night, and now that I have enough money to fund my payroll, I’ll make sure there’s a rotation of two guards on her at all times. The warning on her vehicle was for me, but I can see someone hurting her just because she’s my lawyer. They have no idea what else she is to me, and I’ll keep it that way for now.
So long as she understands who she belongs to.
TWENTY-FOUR
Alexei
I arrive back at Rosalie’s around dawn and hide my motorcycle between the trees before moving toward her house. A dark shadow waits for me, and I’m not surprised. I keep my hands loose at my sides as Percy Jancovic slips out from his hiding place.
“I was surprised to see you out and about,” he says, a nine millimeter pointed at my chest.