Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 21964 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 110(@200wpm)___ 88(@250wpm)___ 73(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 21964 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 110(@200wpm)___ 88(@250wpm)___ 73(@300wpm)
She nodded her head, as she was in a little bit of shock. Isaac had never raised his fist to anyone. The man she just saw was not a man who wasn’t prone to violence. He had known exactly what to do.
Isaac returned, shook Richard’s hand, then made his way toward the table. She stared at him, but she wasn’t afraid of him. She knew there was a whole lot more to Isaac than met the eye. He had a history. A history he had told her had no place in his present or his future.
She didn’t know what to say to him.
The chicken wings were still on the table, and she reached out to take one. “I don’t know about you, but I am starving,” Lucy said.
What did she say? How did she ask him? Isaac didn’t want to talk about his past, and she didn’t want to be that nagging girlfriend that forced him to talk about it.
He sat down, reached for a wing, and bit into it.
Neither of them spoke about what had happened, but it wasn’t forgotten. Lucy knew it hung between them, and she hated that more than anything.
Chapter Ten
Isaac knew he couldn’t stand back and watch Eric get attacked. He knew what he had to do, and he did it. The consequences of his actions were that Lucy saw him. She had questions in her eyes, and he knew it was only a matter of time before he told her.
So, a week later, they were walking home, and the nights were getting shorter. The sun set earlier, and as they arrived home, he closed and locked the door, and waited as she removed her bag.
It was still warm, so she didn’t have a jacket. She turned toward him with a smile on her lips.
“What do you want for dinner?” she asked.
He looked at her and knew he couldn’t just leave it anymore. “There’s something I want to show you.”
“There is?”
“Yes, and ... there’s a chance you’re not going to like it.”
He had to make the leap. He had to trust Lucy with this part of his past. Walking toward her, he held his hand out for her to take, and he loved that she didn’t even hesitate. He took her through to the kitchen that led down to the basement. He flicked on the light, then made his way across the room, going to the small panel he kept hidden. Typing in the code, the door opened, and inside were the few belongings of his parents that he allowed himself to keep. Everything else had been lost or gone up in flames. Pulling out the large photograph album, he stepped back.
Lucy looked at him a little confused.
Moving to the small sofa, he sat down, and she came to sit beside him.
Opening the book, he pointed and talked. “That is my mom, my dad, and that there is me. You will see it is outside of a launderette. That is what my family owned.”
“A launderette, but I thought your family had a garage? You mentioned your father was a mechanic, right?”
“My dad always wanted to be a mechanic, but you see, mechanics couldn’t always launder money.”
He saw the frown on her face. This was a past he wanted to keep buried, but there was no chance of that.
“My family found themselves struggling, and to try and make things work, they took a small loan from a man that was connected to the ... Rostova Bratva. There was no way my father would ever be able to make this payment, so he had no choice but to continue working for them. He cleaned their money. His shop was one of the places they used to clean money. I was his only son, but I was a troublemaker, and the Rostova Bratva saw my potential, as did my father. In the beginning, I was to be recruited as one of their soldiers.” He turned a page over and showed her images of himself as a boy. “I was sent to the Rostova Bratva to learn to become one of their soldiers, and I wanted to make my father proud. I did absolutely everything I could to earn their respect, and I was the best soldier. I was unlike anything they had ever seen.” He stopped because the truth was this was a bad memory. At the time, it had been amazing, and he’d been ready and prepared for anything.
“I worked my way from the ground up, and my parents were rewarded. Not monetarily, but they were kept working, and they were invited to parties. It was much later that I realized they were being mocked. While I was given money and rewards, my parents were brought as a reminder of what they were. I didn’t see that at the time. They were being disrespected, and when they had been used for all they were worth, the Rostova Bratva killed them.”