Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 98207 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 491(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98207 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 491(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
“Take her down to the car,” I tell Conor, tossing him the keys. “And then meet me at the rear fire exit door.”
“Okay.” He nods and helps Scarlett to her feet.
She looks at me, and I feel a stab of something in my gut at the obvious trauma she’s been through.
“Did this lad hurt ye?” I ask her before she goes.
Her eyes move over him, and there’s no fear there. She just nods, like she’s seen men such as him a thousand times over. She knows she’s signing his death warrant, but doesn’t care.
“Conor will take care of ye,” I tell her. “Nobody else is going to hurt ye now.”
“I know,” she answers. And before she goes, she adds, “make him suffer.”
***
When Conor showed up at Slainte with my prisoner in tow, I knew it’d only be a matter of time before Crow came round.
I don’t even bother asking him how the hell he knew where I was watching the apartment from. He sits down beside me in the vacant building across the street and whips out a pair of binoculars.
“Any movement?” he asks.
“Not as of yet,” is my reply. “But they’ll come calling soon enough. Andrei won’t let a good woman go to waste.”
“Ye should have rang me,” he says. “You don’t fecking listen, Fitz.”
I shrug and the room around us goes silent for a pause.
“How’s the girl?”
Crow sighs. This whole situation is only adding to his headache, I’m sure. That girl was a mate of Macks, but she isn’t under our employ. And she’s also now a witness to a murder. It’s a complication for him. Even if I were to tell him not to worry about her, that I trusted her to keep her mouth shut, that isn’t the way it works.
“Rory’s going to keep an eye on her for a bit,” Crow answers. “But Mack doesn’t know that.”
“She won’t hear it from me,” I tell him.
He nods and sets down the binoculars after scanning the street, kicking back in his chair.
“Seems Rory fancies her anyway,” Crow notes. “But she wouldn’t give him the time of day. He was all over the babysitting gig when I mentioned it.”
“Aye,” I agree. “Glad I don’t have to do it.”
“You’ve got your own woman to worry about, Fitz,” he says. “What’s the craic with you and Sasha?”
I ignore him because it’s none of his business. Crow is always suspicious of the dancers, but I think he’s been even more so with Sasha because of what happened with Blaine. Regardless of what her reasons for lying were, Crow will still probably always be suspicious of her. But I know Sasha. I’ve been watching her for three long years. Wanting her. Learning about her. I know everything there is to know about her, from how well she sleeps to the type of food she likes to eat.
A man doesn’t get to know these things about a person without coming to some conclusions of his own. Sasha is as loyal as they come. I always suspected that Blaine was threatening her somehow. Manipulating her. But without her coming clean about it, there wasn’t anything I could do about that either. Until I did. Until I saw it firsthand.
I don’t expect Crow to ever understand that. So he can keep his opinions to himself for all I care.
“Why don’t ye make an honest woman out of her, Fitz?”
I glance over at him, expecting sarcasm on his face. But it isn’t there. He’s serious.
“I don’t know if she’d have me,” I answer him honestly.
“Well there’s only one way to find out,” he says. “Isn’t there? Do ye honestly believe you can just let her walk away? Because I don’t think ye can.”
He’s right, and we both know he’s right. So I just nod.
And then I catch movement on the street. I use the scope of my rifle to have a look, and Crow follows suit with the binoculars.
“Looks like we’ve got a couple more bites,” he says as we stand up. “Hope ye’re wide awake, Fitzy. Going to be a long night for the infamous reaper.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Sasha
Rory’s pacing back and forth through Ronan’s house, on edge after the phone call he took earlier. He keeps glancing at the door, so I know he’s expecting someone, but I don’t ask him who it is.
Rory’s always been respectful towards me, but being that he didn’t hang out much in the VIP lounge at Slainte, I don’t know him very well. It’s strange to have him watching over me, but one look at the guy and it’s clear why Ronan picked him.
He’s ripped as all get out. A large, solid frame that I know frequently does some major damage at the underground fights. He’s a boxer through and through. Rough around the edges but has a sense of humor too. He’s always cracking jokes and messing around. So to see him serious makes me a little edgy.