Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 86238 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86238 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Fuck, Alek. What the hell are you doing? Shut your damn mouth! You don’t need more people pulled into this mess.
“What are you thinking?” Ghost’s interests are as obvious as the scars on his face—painfully on point.
I prop my ass onto the tub then brace my head in my hands. “Nothing. I was just talking smack.”
Even with me brushing my suggestion off as if it is a bad idea, Ghost runs with it. “I think you could be onto something.” He moves to the vanity across from me before folding his arms over his chest. “Tension has been hot for years. It wouldn’t take much to start a turf war.” I almost blurt out, ‘the war has already started,’ but he continues talking, foiling my endeavor. “For once, it’ll just be staged.”
“What?” I peer up at him, truly lost for words this time.
He flashes me a smirk I haven’t seen in weeks. “I need to make some contacts.”
When he switches off the shower and enters his office, I say, “I’ll join you in a second.” To undo all your hard work. “I need to head to my car for a tick.”
“If you’re going for…” He coughs, aware now we could be monitored and not wanting to share my secret. “You’ve got everything you need in there.” He nudges his head to the medicine cabinet above the sink. When I take a stumbling step back after opening the cabinet and finding rows of my medication in untouched, original packaging, he mutters, “I asked Doc for a couple of sets just in case. There’s another lot in my car and over three dozen on the ship.” He shakes his head before unnecessarily slanting it. “Don’t fucking look at me like that. I don’t want to have to kill you to keep my rep.”
His top lip twitches when I reply, “Or fight me for the top bunk.” But he holds back his grin. It shows how badly he is snowed under.
I’m the same.
We’re waging a war, except this time, we’re not on the same team.
Ghost just doesn’t know that yet.
29
ALEK
Ghost’s plan is solid.
He has his T’s crossed and his I’s dotted, but he left one fatal flaw in his plan.
He placed Katie’s safety in my hands.
I almost fucking folded. I got so close to dragging him into the bathroom and telling him everything, but I held back when Yev dropped into the compound for some of Vera’s famous syrnikis. He said he couldn’t wait to devour three plates full but had to settle for eggs when Vera was nowhere to be found.
Vera usually travels with the crew when they’re going abroad, so Ghost shrugged off his comment as a whine.
I couldn’t do the same.
The throb of the vein in his neck exposed he wasn’t solely talking about Vera. He hadn’t located Ana’s safehouse either, which nosedived the odds of me finding it. Yev knows every nook of this city, and he is closer in age to the youth willing to snitch on their mothers for a couple of dollars, so if anyone could sniff out where Kirill was stashing her, it would be him.
I had hoped he would have brought me something I could have used so I wouldn’t have to advise Kirill of Ghost’s plans, but it seems as if I don’t have a choice.
My thumb hovers over the send button on the message I type out advising Kirill that Ghost plans to remove Katie from his watch under fake enemy fire, but before I can send it, Katie exits her bathroom.
Her hand clamps up to cover her mouth when she spots me lingering at the side of her room. “You really need to stop doing that,” she pleads, her words hardly audible through the fingers pressed over her mouth.
“Sorry. I knocked. You must not have heard me since you were in the shower.” You’d think lying would come naturally for how often I’ve done it in the past few hours. It doesn’t. That wasn’t the most pathetic one I’ve used the past twelve hours, but it is cutting it close for a top-ten position. My head is throbbing, I’ve had two nose bleeds in the past hour, and I’m about to snitch on my best friend, and that isn’t even the worst of it.
My girl could be hurt, and I promised I’d never let anything happen to her.
I’m a fucking liar.
Needing to get back to the task at hand before I burn down the city to find Ana, I say, “We’re heading out in five.”
“Heading where?” Katie asks, her voice high with suspicion.
For once, I can be honest. “The day I work out that man’s inner workings will be the day I’ll take my final breath.” Eager to leave, I highlight that she’s still in her pajamas. “Do you want to wear that or get changed?”