Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
He had always been crazy, but I could tell from the look in his eyes that he’d really snapped.
“There you are,” he snarled. “Were you in there fucking, or are you both waiting for Lorenzo to come back and have you?”
I reminded myself to focus on the best opportunity to save ourselves. I couldn’t listen to any of his vile words.
“You were supposed to make a baby, and then you were supposed to serve Ivanov, please him so he would work for me.”
He held a piece of wood over his head, but he didn’t seem to have another gun. I glanced at Alina and nodded.
I met my father’s gaze. “Ivanov was never going to work for you. He hates your guts.”
He roared and charged toward me. Alina lifted her gun. I heard the crack as my father fell. She had put a bullet through his temple.
He lay on the floor, blood pooling under him. Bile rose in my throat, but I swallowed it down. I didn’t have time to puke now. I looked at Alina. “You… You really are a good shot.”
“Come on.” She held the gun in her hand, and I kept hold of the knife she had given me.
I screamed as we opened the door, and a man was climbing the steps to the porch.
“It’s me!” Lorenzo shouted.
Alina lowered her gun as we both said, “What happened?”
“Someone hit me from behind when I went to check on Landry.” We stepped back inside, and Lorenzo immediately noticed my father’s body. He looked at Alina, down at her gun, and back up. “Good work. Did he hurt either one of you?”
“No,” I said. “He can’t hurt anybody now.”
Lorenzo pulled me into his arms. “That’s right, baby.” After a quick hug, he released me. “We need to get Landry in here and take a look at him. I think he was surprised the same way as me. God, I was such a fucking fool to go out there.”
“We took care of things,” Alina said.
“We did,” I agreed.
Lorenzo smiled. “I told you that you were stronger than you thought.”
Maybe I was.
“That’s one asshole down,” Alina said. “I hope I get to be the one to end my father too.”
Lorenzo nodded. “You’ll have to beat me to it.”
I had to stand with my back to my father’s corpse. As much as I had wanted him dead, I couldn’t look at him. I already knew it would take a long time before I got the image of the hole in his head out of my mind. “Are you okay?” I asked Alina. “I mean, have you ever killed anyone before?”
She shook her head. “No, but I’m fine. I wasn’t raised to be sentimental about human life.”
“Alina. I know, but—”
“I’ll be all right.”
I didn’t argue. It was best if she held herself together for now.
“You stay here. I’ll get Landry,” Lorenzo said.
Landry was a huge man. “Can you carry him by yourself if he’s still unconscious?”
“I’ll manage.”
“I can help,” Alina said.
“No, both of you need to stay in the cabin. Alina, do you still have my gun?”
“I do.”
“Keep it with you.”
Lorenzo left, and Alina encouraged me to sit in her room, away from where my father lay on the ground. My father’s corpse. He wasn’t really here anymore. He couldn’t hurt me or anyone else.
A few minutes later, Lorenzo knocked on the door and called for us. I held it open as he pulled Landry inside, gripping him under his arms.
Alina scowled at him. “Did you drag him here?”
“It’s not hurting him. He’s fine.” Lorenzo brought him to the couch, and the two of us helped him get Landry up there. “I checked him over and made sure nothing was broken before I brought him in. I think he was hit on the head, just like I was. There’s a bump here.”
When Lorenzo touched the swollen spot on the side of Landry’s head, he started to come around but didn’t fully wake.
“Landry!” Alina said. “Landry, come on, wake up.”
Lorenzo headed toward the kitchen. “I’m going to get some ice for him,” he said.
“What about you? Don’t you need some too?”
“My head hurts like hell, but I’ll be okay.”
I wasn’t going to let him ignore being injured. “You might have a concussion.”
“True, but we can’t worry about that right now.”
He was right. We were in the middle of nowhere with a disabled guard and a dead body, but I needed to know he wasn’t seriously hurt.
“Hold this.” Lorenzo handed the ice pack to Alina.
When she placed the ice against the knot on his head, Landry’s eyes fluttered open.
“Landry,” she said. “Are you okay?”
He groaned and started to close his eyes.
“No.” She slapped his arm. “Stay awake. Talk to us.”
He blinked at her and then looked around, eyes widening when they landed on Dimitri. “Fuck. What happened?”
32
LORENZO
The evening’s events were too long a story to tell now. “Niko and Alina will explain it. I’ve got to get Dimitri’s body out of here and call Ambrose.”