Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 91243 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91243 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Silence follows, heavy and profound. Mass sags as he drops the gun. “Lady, patch me into the intercom system.”
“Go ahead, Massimo.”
“To Medved’s forces, your Pakhan is dead. His body is growing cold at my feet. Turn around and leave this place before we slaughter those few who remain. Drop your weapons and run. Your end is coming for you now.” He waits a moment until Lady confirms that it was broadcast all across the island.
I press against Gabe’s wound. “Help’s coming,” I tell him. “Just hold on.”
“Hey, are we even now?” He smiles at me, eyelids drooping. “I think I did pretty good, right?”
“Gabe, stay awake. Gabe!”
His smile seems sincere as his eyes close.
Mass takes Rosie and presses his fingers to Gabe’s neck.
“Still beating,” he says, but he doesn’t look hopeful. “We’ll stay with him.”
I clutch at Mass, exhaustion hitting me hard as the sound of fighting slowly comes to a stuttering halt.
MASS
Six Months Later
“You think you can run from me?” I stalk down the beach, smirking like the god of death. “You think you can get away? There’s nowhere to hide.”
My prey squeals, little legs desperately pumping at the sand. I get closer, gaining on her, heart thrumming in my chest.
“No!” she screams.
“Yes,” I say, catching her with a lazy stride as she trips and almost goes down.
I grab her before she can get sand in her mouth. Rosie laughs wildly as I lift her up into the air, tossing her and catching her again, then kissing her all over and making her laugh like crazy. She squirms and struggles against me.
“Again!” she begs. “Again, again!”
“You’re going to be the death of me, little girl,” I tell her, but I can’t ever say no.
I’m tired by the time Rosie goes down with the nanny to build sandcastles near the water. I watch them go with a smile on my face.
It’s strange how only half a year ago this sand was drenched in blood and speckled with wreckage, human limbs, and smoke-filled craters.
Now it’s smooth and pristine.
Sometimes my daughter finds shell casings. She doesn’t know what they are, and we don’t make a big deal of it. But the way my life is going, I suspect she’ll learn how to shoot before long, and then she’ll understand what those shiny bronze shells really were.
I hope to preserve her innocence a while longer.
“What a good dad.”
I look over my shoulder. Allie’s walking toward me, grinning under a big, floppy hat to keep the sun off. Her wrap’s blowing in the slight breeze, but I can still admire her curves barely covered by a bikini underneath.
God, this woman. She still makes my blood burn every time she’s around, and she doesn’t even need to try.
“Putting in the hours.” I kiss her when she arrives at my side. “Making up for lost time.”
“I think we’re past that?”
“Oh, I don’t think we ever will be.”
She nudges me, shaking her head. “Rosie’s fine. Honestly.”
“After what she went through, I’ll be paying that debt for the rest of my life.”
“You’re so dramatic.”
I shrug, not disagreeing, but inside I still feel the pain of my daughter going through hell. She was kidnapped, used as bait, and terrified far more than any little one her age ever should.
But the storm’s passed. Though there’s another coming fast on the horizon.
In the lull, I’ll do my best to protect what’s important and spend my time the best I can.
“How’s it going back at the Resort?”
Allie slips her hand into mine and leans against my arm. I love how soft and warm she feels. “Well enough. It’s exhausting, though.”
“You don’t love a bunch of old Italian men kissing your ass?”
“I can only take so many smooches.”
“Ah, but it’s good to see them finally bend the knee.”
She nods at that. “Stubborn idiots. Papa kept telling them it’d only get worse if they held out, and now look at them.”
“They’re lucky I haven’t killed them all.” I brush some hair from my wife’s face. “I’m tempted to turn the Five Families into three.”
“I’d accept zero, in all honesty. God, they’re so frustrating.”
“That’s the role you chose, though, isn’t it? You’re my lead negotiator.”
She looks up at the sky, squinting into the clouds. “And I wish I had listened when you tried to talk me out of it.”
I pat her butt lightly. “Stubbornness is a good trait in a diplomat.”
Poor Allie has been spending the last few days at the Resort with the last holdouts of the New York families. They were pissed when I killed Medved and refused to pledge their allegiance to me. Instead, they shopped around at the other remaining Dragons, though clearly that didn’t go well.
Now that life is starting to get unsettled, they’re back knocking on my door.
“Should I go get Rosie and give Mary a little break?”
“She’s fine. Come back to the shade with me.” I tug my wife along toward the lounge chairs around the door. It wasn’t easy finding a nanny we trusted after the fiasco with Satya, but Mary’s been pretty good. It helps that she’s from New York and worked with Allie’s parents for a while first.