Total pages in book: 37
Estimated words: 34381 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 172(@200wpm)___ 138(@250wpm)___ 115(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34381 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 172(@200wpm)___ 138(@250wpm)___ 115(@300wpm)
Rico was the last to enter. The room went silent when he did, tension rising in the air. Jax stood and shook his hand, and Ace grinned and waved at him. Rico’s lips twitched with a smile at Ace. “Anurak misses you,” Rico told him.
Ace nodded. “I know. I miss him, too. When everything is calm again, I’ll come spend all the time in the world with him. I promise.”
Rico ruffled his hair, then dropped into the chair beside me. Shaw leaned forward. “Before we start, I want to make it clear that any animosity between the two of you,” he said, pointing his finger between Anatoly and Rico, “will not be tolerated in my clubhouse and around my wife.”
Anatoly nodded once, and Rico grunted. Rurik leaned forward, bracing his forearms on the table. “We’re here because someone has targeted Maksim, and it doesn’t make sense to do so unless they’re trying to make some kind of statement with him. We may all have an issue on our hands.”
“The fuck would anyone want with us?” Cameron asked. “Maksim doesn’t have shit to do with the club.”
“No, but your president is married to my daughter,” Anatoly coolly reminded him. “If they’ve targeted a mere soldier—” I bristled— “I don’t put it past them to go after Amaliya.”
“Watch your fucking mouth,” Alfonzo snapped at Anatoly. “Maksim is not just some mere soldier.”
Anatoly cocked his head to the side for a moment, then dipped his chin. “My apologies, Maksim. I only meant that you are low-ranking. Not that you are not… worthy.”
I didn’t say anything because I didn’t know what to say. Silence just seemed the best way to go.
“Okay, hear me out,” Ace spoke up, leaning forward now. “What if someone is targeting Maksim because of his attachment to Alfonzo? We all know Mr. I’m-A-Ghost is fucking untouchable. But if they found his weakness, which is now Maksim—clearly—they may be exploiting that.”
Alfonzo laughed quietly at Ace’s name for him, and Ace smirked. Anatoly looked at me. “Did anyone happen to see the two of you when you were intimate?” he asked.
My cheeks darkened. “I don’t know,” I admitted. I wasn’t aware of anything but Alfonzo touching me and fucking me when we’d been in those woods. Someone could’ve recorded the whole thing while right next to us, and I wouldn’t have been aware.
“If they knew to look for us there, then someone was tracking one of us. And since I’m damn good at knowing if someone’s tracking me, then they had to have figured out Maksim was given the job of taking me out, which means they tracked him,” Alfonzo said. “And no one but me, Rico, and Niran knew about my task to take Maksim out, which leaves it as an inside job on your end. Someone in your family isn’t afraid of taking out another family member for the sake of their own agenda. That’s dangerous.”
Anatoly stood. “Then we’ll begin prying information out of all our soldiers, starting with the ones who lived in the same house as Maksim.”
Rico stood as well. “And we’ll keep digging on our end. At some point, this person has to get sloppy. If I find something out, I’ll have Alfonzo reach out to Rurik.”
Anatoly nodded. “We will be in touch.” He looked at me. “Stay safe, Maksim. I don’t agree with what you did, but I would never kill you over falling in love.” With that, he left the room.
Rurik pointed a finger at me. “Don’t get shot again, clear?”
I nodded once. “Clear,” I murmured.
Once I was in Alfonzo’s car and we were headed down the highway, I looked at him. “Anatoly didn’t put a hit on me,” I said quietly. “But if he didn’t… then why did Rurik feel the need to get me out of the country? And why was Anatoly set on taking you out?”
Alfonso shrugged and reached over to hold my thigh, giving it a gentle squeeze. “I don’t know, mouse. But I intend to find out. And when I do, you’ll be the first person I inform,” he promised.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Alfonzo
Maksim was quiet—too quiet. If I asked him a question, he just gave little noises, not even bothering to open his mouth to speak. Even Anurak had tried to engage him in conversation, but Maksim just seemed lost in his head. And when he wasn’t drowning in his mind, he was sleeping, and not even just because of the pain pills. It was like he was too stressed and just wanted to escape the clusterfuck we’d found ourselves involved in.
“Maksim,” I drawled as we entered our room. We’d had dinner, and instead of forcing him into the living room, where I’d been hoping he’d interact with someone all day, I brought him upstairs. My man needed me, and fuck if I was gonna let him keep suffering. I couldn’t fucking stand this depressed mood he seemed to be stuck in.