Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 78587 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78587 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
I swallowed hard, hoping it would push down the lump in my throat, but it stayed, bitter and unrelenting. I stuffed what she’d given me into my suitcase before starting toward the door. When I stepped into the hall, the cold hit me like tiny knives against my skin. I turned back to Mila for one last plea, but before I could speak, she started closing the door.
The second it clicked behind me, I started to tremble, not just from the cold, but from the fear coursing through my veins. When I reached the sidewalk, I didn’t call for a cab. I needed a moment to think, so I just started walking.
I walked block after block, and I tried to muster up the courage I had deep within me. I wasn’t a coward. I’d never been a coward. I told myself I was done playing victim, and I meant it. I would not go back to Alek. I wouldn’t do it. I would die first, so that left one option.
I had to find a place to hide, just until I could figure out my next move. Maybe Mila was right. Maybe Viktor was the answer. He was certainly the only one I could think of. With him in mind, I made my way to the local library and found an open computer.
As soon as the screen lit up, I typed in the name, Viktor Volkov.
Just seeing his name brought back a thousand memories.
I hadn’t seen him in years, but I could still remember his deep green eyes and his kind smile. It was hard to imagine that I hadn’t heard his voice since he graduated high school. There was a time when our families were tangled together like roots from an old tree. We’d basically grown up together, and since we were the same age, we were thrown into each other’s orbit, whether we liked it or not.
There were times when I wasn’t sure how Viktor felt about having me around. He was quiet, standoffish, and often impossible to read. But once he decided you were worth the time and let you in, he gave everything without a single hesitation. He was kind in a way that felt rare. It certainly was for me.
He had an old soul and often viewed things differently than others, but I liked that about him. I liked that if he saw someone cross a line, he would call them on it and cut them down without second thought. And it didn’t matter who they were, and sometimes his blunt honesty could knock the air right out of you.
I liked that about him, too.
There was never malice in his actions. Only truth.
And when he was in a good mood, everyone knew it. He was funny in that dry humor, cutthroat way that slipped under your skin and stayed there. Just thinking about how he could make me laugh made the heaviness in my heart feel a little lighter.
Maybe, just maybe, he would open his door to me.
Someone coughing behind me brought me back into reality, and I turned my focus back to the computer screen. The search results were thin. He was mentioned in his father’s obituary, but not much more. My stomach twisted into a knot as I scrolled through one dead end after the next.
There were a few close matches, but after digging a little further, I realized it wasn’t him. It felt like I was chasing smoke, but I kept at it. And then, like a ray of light, I saw his name listed on a property in Little Rock, Arkansas. A few more strokes of the keys and a name popped up on the screen.
The Black Crown.
I’d heard that he and his brothers had sold out, but no one had ever explained what that meant. I was too afraid to ask, but as I sat there staring at the screen, I finally understood.
He and his brothers used their father’s death as an opportunity to walk away from the bratva—something I never believed was possible. My heart started to pound so hard I feared people around me might hear it.
A riverfront casino.
One of the biggest in the south.
And it was theirs.
I sat back in my chair and stared at the screen until the letters started to blur. This was my chance. My only hope. I grabbed a pencil from the tray and wrote down the address, and with shaking fingers, I pulled up the bus schedules. I searched Little Rock, and my stomach took a nosedive when I saw the next bus didn’t leave until the following morning.
That meant a night in a city I didn’t know. A night of hiding and praying that I wouldn’t be found, because every hour that ticked by was another chance for Alek or his men to catch up with me. I couldn’t let that happen. I needed to find a hotel. It needed to be cheap and relatively close to the bus station.