Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 87618 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87618 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
“We were an arranged match.”
“I heard. What an antiquated idea.”
“All too common in our world.”
“You’re right. That’s because we’re a bunch of antiques ourselves. We have to be twice as good and ten times as clever to survive as the world moves on without us.” He puts his phone into his jacket pocket. “Give Riley my regards. You have one month, Permafrost. I hope you have much more to give me during our next meeting. We’ll speak again in a week.” He slips from the booth and stands.
I’m ready to be done with this mess. He seems to have accepted my excuses, but they sit like dead bugs on my tongue. I hate coming to a client without a solution or at least a clear path to getting the job done. This meeting was about as terrible as I get at what I do, and now Iron Head is going to walk away from here thinking maybe my reputation is overblown.
But I can’t care about that.
I’d torch my own name if it meant keeping my wife safe, and I don’t even know why.
If only to preserve the alliance Tigran and Arsen worked so hard to create.
“One more thing,” Iron Head says before he leaves. His eyes move toward the bar where the two soldiers are waiting. They don’t acknowledge him, but they’re definitely paying attention now. “I really hate to say this, but I believe I need to be explicit just to avoid any possible misunderstandings between us.” He moves to face me, still smiling that used car dealership grin, but this time there’s an edge to it. “If you fail, my employers will be extremely unhappy. I will personally make sure that you are held liable, and your entire organization will be torched from the ground up. Do you hear me?”
“I hear you,” I say, struggling to keep my jaw from flexing. I hate fucking threats, especially ones that don’t need to be spoken out loud. “We’ll be square.”
“That’s great. Congratulations again on your marriage.” He nods and walks off, leaving me alone.
I stew for a few minutes. That was a frustrating meeting. I have one month to solve a mystery that I’ve already solved, and I still have no idea how I’m going to wriggle out of this mess.
But I did learn something interesting.
Iron Head is as fucked as I am if I can’t come up with the watch.
It was hidden in that speech. Mantis doesn’t accept failure—and they’ll blame him for the loss of the watch to begin with. I get the feeling that his superiors aren’t even involved in these negotiations. If they knew he lost it, Iron Head would be rotting somewhere in a parking garage, and I’d be talking to someone completely different.
That’s good to know.
I wait for Iron Head’s men to leave before I head out. I check my phone and find a text from Tigran telling me to meet him at Pomegranate House. That’s a restaurant owned by the Brotherhood and popular with high-ranking members. It’s a quick drive over, and I’m thinking about my problem with Riley and the watch the whole way. No solutions magically present themselves, and I’m deeply frustrated as I head inside.
Tigran’s sitting at the bar toward the far end. This place used to be managed by his brother Arsen before he became the patron. Now it’s the informal meeting place for anyone that wants to impress the Brotherhood. Half the clientele is related to our family in some way, and the other half wants to do business with us.
“How’d your meeting go?” he asks as I sit in the stool beside him. The bartender brings me that fancy Japanese whiskey I like so much without having to ask.
“I’m still alive,” I say, taking a sip and savoring the burn. I’m tempted to get blasted tonight, if only so I don’t have to think about how fucked I am right now.
“And how’s your home life?” Tigran’s trying not to smile, the sly bastard.
“She hasn’t moved in yet. Not officially, at least.”
“Looking forward to it?”
I give him a flat stare. “Dying of excitement.”
Tigran’s grin gets huge. I try not to feel resentful of him, but it’s difficult. He’s the reason I’m in this mess, at least partially. I took the Mantis job, and Riley stole the watch, but Tigran’s the one who convinced me to marry her in the first place.
The Brotherhood is important to me. I didn’t have much growing up, and the Brotherhood was my only real option to get ahead. I was a quiet kid, good with computers, and always getting into scraps with the bigger guys in the neighborhood. They toughened me up and taught me how to fight on the streets, and I learned how to crack into computers while trying to ignore my mother crying in the kitchen because Dad got drunk and disappeared for a few days again. If it weren’t for my early mentors in the organization, I don’t know where I’d be right now. Probably in prison.