Total pages in book: 41
Estimated words: 37733 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 189(@200wpm)___ 151(@250wpm)___ 126(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 37733 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 189(@200wpm)___ 151(@250wpm)___ 126(@300wpm)
"Yep."
He shakes his head, sighing. "Fine, tesoro. You'll return with me. But you'll do as I say." He hits me with a withering stare. "If you don't and your uncle gets his hands on you, I'll burn Chicago to the fucking ground to get you back, regardless of who gets hurt in the process."
He means it. The truth is right there in his eyes, blazing like unholy fire. This man wouldn't just wage war to keep me. He'd burn the whole world to ash.
Chapter Ten
Domani
"What is this place?" Finley asks, wandering through the safehouse deep in the heart of gang territory. She runs her fingers over the back of the sofa and then trails them along the small bookcase.
"A safehouse," I say, peering through cracks between the boards over the windows at the street below. Cars line the street on both sides, but they're the same ones that were there when we arrived. We weren't followed. "No one knows about it. You'll be safe here."
If there's a safer place in Chicago, I don't know it. I have no ties to this place, no reason to come here. Neither does anyone my family knows about. The apartment belongs to Constantine Attias, an associate of the Arakas family in Silver Spoon Falls. He buried the purchase under a landslide of shell companies to use it the same way I'm using it now, as a place to disappear if the need ever strikes.
When you do what we do, you're always fucking prepared.
By the time anyone untangles the web around this place, we'll be long gone. I'm not making the same mistakes with Finley that Diego did with Amalia, hiding her in an apartment with my name stamped all over it. They can scour every safehouse of mine they can find, but they won't find her. They won't find me either.
We ditched the SUV in St. Louis and rented a Tahoe. I ditched it in a parking garage a few miles from our hotel and bought a nondescript Charger. I barely fit in the motherfucker, but no one knows what we're driving now. It's just another question mark lined up next to a big fucking row of question marks.
I'm not stupid. I've survived this game for a long time. This time, I've got more to lose than ever before. And I don't ever fucking lose. Rafe taught us that.
"Why are the windows boarded up?"
"To keep people out." I shrug. "Fuck if I know. It's not my place."
She stops prowling, turning to me in surprise. "It's not?"
"Nope. It belongs to a friend."
"Oh."
"Come here." I hold my hand out toward her, waiting until she takes it to lead her down the hallway to the bedroom. I turn on lights as we go. The furniture in the place is old and worn, but only a fool fills a place like this with expensive furniture and expects to keep it.
Half of the units in this building are vacant. A third of them are filled with squatters. The only thing keeping them out of this unit is the reinforced steel door and the fact that it's on the sixth floor. If it were easier to get into, all of Constantine's shit would be their shit too. They want somewhere to sleep. This unit is too much of a hassle when there are plenty of others that are far easier to get into.
I pull her into the closet, flipping on the light there.
"What are we… Oh," she whispers when she sees the small door hidden at the back of the closet.
"This is a safe room, mio sole." I pull open the panel designed to look like an electric box and punch in the code. The door opens, revealing the real reason I brought her here. The safe room is nearly as large as the bedroom, with its own bathroom and kitchenette. It's also fully stocked and far nicer than the apartment that hides it. "I want you to stay in here."
"Why? I thought you said no one knew about the safehouse."
"They don't, but you'll be far more comfortable in here. And I'll feel a lot better about leaving you here if I know this door is standing closed between you and everyone else in this building. Your uncle and the Valentino family aren't the only dangerous people in this city. They're all around us," I murmur. "And I can't do what I need to do if I'm worried about you."
"I'll stay here," she promises, pushing her way into my arms. "Whatever you need to make sure you come back to me, Domani."
I tip her head up, forcing her to meet my gaze. "I am coming back to you, Finley. All I'm doing tonight is a little information gathering. I won't be gone long."
My promise doesn't soothe the furrow from her brow. It doesn't kill the worry in her eyes, either. That's grown with every mile tonight. I know the only thing that's going to silence it is keeping my promise. She's terrified one or both of us isn't going to make it out of this alive. I'm not going to let that happen, but the only way she's going to believe it is to see it for herself. She's lived with fear for far too long to let go of easily.