Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 127461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
Tonio stood up slowly, looking as cocky and arrogant as a young man raised to believe he was above all rules could look. “I guess I’m supposed to challenge you for leadership or something equally as silly as that.”
“No. You haven’t been listening. Your brother is dead. He was executed for his crimes. Just as you are to be.” Drake nodded his head.
One of Drake’s men, Kian, stepped in front of Tonio and in one swift movement brought up a gun and shot him between the eyes. He did so with the blurring speed Drake’s security team was infamous for. He didn’t wait for the body to drop, just turned away in contempt and moved back to the line with the others.
Armande stood up slowly, his impeccable suit and shoes stained with drops of blood. His face had gone gray. “Drake.”
Drake shook his head. “Every excuse you made for your behavior in the past we wanted to believe, Armande. For your sister. For your aunt. For all of us. I didn’t want to think you were capable of selling human beings. Running drugs was bad enough, but selling children? You didn’t need the money.”
“It wasn’t like that. I was protecting Charisse. They threatened to kill her. I had no choice.”
Drake shook his head. “Your leopard doesn’t lie. The images in his head are always the truth.”
“This lair—hell, the entire parish will fall without the Mercier business. We’re too important for you to threaten me this way,” Armande blustered.
“I don’t make threats, Armande. You should know that by now.”
Kian moved fast, a blurring speed in human form. He came in from behind Armande soundlessly, then suddenly was in front of him. Before Armande had a chance to react, Kian shot him with a single bullet between the eyes. Again, he walked away before the body had time to fall to the ground.
There was a stunned silence. No one spoke. No one moved in their chairs.
“I would very much like to say those were the only two depraved individuals we have living among us, betraying us, but unfortunately, there are two more. Gaston and Jules Mouton, you’ve been condemned to death for your crimes of drug running and human trafficking. For betraying every single person in his lair.”
Drake felt sick. He’d sent his men out on terrible missions, ones he knew they had little chance to come back from. He’d seen friends die. He’d had close calls himself. He liked Gaston and Jules Mouton. Granted, he hadn’t spent a great deal of time with them; he’d been too busy seeing to the numerous problems of the lair. He ran a huge business. And Saria had been pregnant with their first child. Still, the little time he’d spent around the brothers, they’d seemed like good, solid, steady men.
He wasn’t an executioner. He glanced at Gorya. At Fyodor. Mitya. Joshua. These were men he’d asked to place their lives in untenable positions to help fight human trafficking. In doing so, he’d forced them to make these very kinds of decisions, to become executioners.
“Drake,” Jules began.
He shook his head and flicked his gaze toward Kian. The head of his security had quietly worked his way around to the other side of the tables so he could come up behind the brothers. With him was Riggs, another one of his personal security guards. They didn’t make a sound, pure stealth. Moving into position swiftly, they simply stepped in front of the two men and executed them simultaneously.
Drake sighed. “The rules of the lair are absolute as always. No one speaks of this to anyone for any reason. The bodies will be cremated.”
He wanted to go to his wife, but he knew that wasn’t possible, not yet. Amos Jeanmard was coming toward him, and he had to see to the bodies. The Amurov family would leave quickly. They were on a precise timetable and had to get on a plane to Russia.
Russia, Primorye Region
Fyodor, Timur, Mitya, Gorya and Sevastyan led their small army of shifters through the pass in the mountains toward the lair they’d called home while growing up. They knew the entire area intimately, having explored it as children. With them were the others who had grown up in the lair, Matvei, Rodion, Kyanite and so many others who had followed them to the United States and eventually found their way to work for them as trusted members of their new territories.
Gorya had done his best to try to convince Maya to stay home with Evangeline, where Fyodor had some of his very skilled security men protecting her. He thought bringing her back to the place where she had been so abused as a child was a terrible idea, but she refused to be separated from him. She used the excuse that Wraith was too close to fully rising, but he knew her decision had nothing to do with Wraith and everything to do with her needing to be with him. He felt the same way about her. He didn’t want a separation and Rogue hadn’t either.