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)
She knows what I don’t want to admit.
This may be the last time we will see each other alive.
35
ANASTASIA
Once Katie’s SUV disappears behind the shrubs protecting the coastline from the winds whipping off the ocean, the goon grunts for me to return to our SUV before he orders the driver out to help him place the deceased woman into the trunk.
The goon who shot her without remorse has only just grabbed hold of her feet when he suddenly stumbles forward. Just like when he backhanded the unnamed blonde, I stare in bewilderment when blood trickles from his mouth as he spins to look at something behind him.
My hand shoots up to clamp my mouth when his twirl exposes the reason for his shock. He’s been shot in the back of the head, but he is somehow still standing.
A second bullet that rips through his chest does what the first bullet didn’t. It immediately buckles his legs out from beneath him and puts goon two on high alert.
He grabs for his gun before he reaches for a shield I refuse to give him. I kick him with everything I have when he lurches for an Asian woman seated across from me, stupidly believing his life is worth more than the women who kept me alive by dribbling water into my mouth and regularly changing my soiled clothes.
I am weak and fighting to stay alert, but my kick is strong enough to force the goon out into the open. The bullets whizzing from the direction the shimmer came from keep him out.
As my brain scrambles on what to do next, I remember Alek saying something about Kirill converting a cargo ship because there’s no mafia jurisdiction on the water. That is pirate territory, a completely separate entity to the bratva.
With this in mind, and despite the shudders making me a jittery mess, I climb out of the SUV and attempt to drag the men into the cab. What happens on the sea stays on the sea, so if these men’s deaths are Alek’s doing, he can’t be punished if it didn’t happen on anyone’s ‘turf,’ right?
“Come on,” I scream through the pain tearing me in two. The man is too heavy for me to budge on my own. I can barely shift him. “Thank you,” I praise Maryann when she climbs over the row of seats in front of her to help me.
We’re soon joined by another two women who help us squeeze the driver into the empty passenger seat.
Once we have everyone on board, I slot into the driver’s seat before firing up the ignition.
“It’s okay,” I promise when a handful of the women’s sobs start up again when they realize I am steering us toward the ship instead of away from it. “They won’t hurt you. I promise.” Most don’t believe me. It is understandable when you learn what they’ve been through. The stories they shared were horrendous, and it has me petrified of the life my daughter would have had if she were born breathing. Alek would have protected her, but there is only so much one man can do.
The knowledge has me wondering if I was too harsh on my father while growing up. I wanted everything, but he didn’t have a penny to his name, so he tried to get some by gambling.
When my crazy careen down the slopy surface is eyeballed by a handful of dockworkers, I line up with the gangway of the ship instead of the parking lot at its side.
I need us on the boat, not next to it.
The women scream when our race across the gangway only has two of the SUV’s tires connecting with the ground, but it has nothing on the squeals they release when the clipboard the goon dropped wedges under the brake pedal.
Our race doesn’t slow in the slightest when I push down hard. We speed toward a large stack of shipping containers with nothing in the way to retard our speed.
“The park brake!” Maryanne yells with only a second to spare.
I yank it up just as the back wheel of the SUV snags on the mesh safety barrier meant to stop passengers from plunging to their deaths.
The combination of the safety barrier and the implementation of the park brake brings our SUV to a screeching halt an inch from a stack of containers.
Shocked and surprised, I slip off the driver’s seat before sliding down the container I almost collided with headfirst to sit at the base. I’m clammy, on the verge of vomiting, and another emotion I can’t quite understand is bombarding me, but I am alive. Just.
I’ve only sucked down a handful of breaths when I spot a good person to dispel my unusual surge of emotions on. Alek, Ghost, and a handful of men are climbing aboard the ship like pirates. They board via the railings closest to the ocean.