Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 126003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 630(@200wpm)___ 504(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 630(@200wpm)___ 504(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
“Where did you go?”
“I went to Dublin.” Another grin.
This time she narrows her eyes at me.
“What do you think happened next, Irina?” I say these words softly. Slowly.
“You killed your father.”
“I killed my father. Take a guess why.”
She holds up the tape. “Because of this.”
“You’re a lot smarter than you let on. But no, that’s just someone eles’s business that I’ve been holding on to since Benny couldn’t take care of it anymore. I went to Dublin and killed my Da because there was a hold on what came next for Eoin.”
“What are you talking about? What kind of hold?”
“If I did what I was told by Benny, which was win that next fight with Sick Heart, then he would make sure that Eoin was safe. It was the first step of me…” I let out a long exhale. “It was the first step in becoming one of them.”
“Oh.” This little word comes out of her mouth as the smallest of whispers.
“He would take care of it? Remember when I told you that part? It was all gonna be fine. He was gonna take care of it. Remember that part?”
Irina nods, but says nothing now.
“I thought…” I stop here to sigh. “And this was why you telling me that Cort was buying his freedom matters so much. Because I thought Benny was telling me the truth. That Eoin was safe. And if I did the fight, did everything they said—let them control me as I became one of them—that he would be OK.”
“But it was a lie, wasn’t it?”
Poor Irina. I feel sorry for her right now. Because her mind isn’t sick like the rest of us. Her mind is so sweet. “It was a lie. The whole thing was a lie. They were never going to let Eoin live. He was probably already dead when Benny was doing his best to explain how things were going to work out for me. In fact—”
I can’t even finish. It’s so gross. Because I’m pretty sure that Benny was probably the one who killed Eoin and they were gonna use that against him when I joined his little club—his elite little club—and rose in the ranks.
You don’t get to cancel your debts. But you can rearrange them. And that’s the whole point of the Ring fights. Rearranging debt so one could rearrange their power. Shuffling positions within the organization. Seeing who could hold the most debt over everyone else. So they could get more, or keep certain people safe, or whatever.
It’s a game. It’s nothing but a game.
“What’s on this tape here, Eason?” Irina holds up the tape from the envelope.
“People being tortured. By men who are not in that stack.” I nod my head at the photos on the couch next to her.
“How did you get this tape?”
“When I didn’t show up in Dubai, Wade came to get us and he brought that envelope with him. Davis and I left the hotel immediately. And believe it or not, it was Davis’s idea to run. He’s a complete piece of shit for being on the payroll, but he did save my life that day. And maybe he’s even spying on me now, I dunno. But I’m still alive. And if you only knew how much I’d rather be dead, then maybe you could understand why I actually trust him for not letting that happen.”
Irina closes her eyes and shakes her head. “I don’t understand.” She opens them again. “I’m really not smarter than I look. I barely have any education at all. I can’t follow your fuckin’ mysteries, Eason. I know we come from the same world, but I don’t really know what it looks like—I just know it’s evil. I’ve been in the jungle, remember? So can you just spell it out for me?”
I feel sad for her in this moment. On the outside Irina van Breda is everything a girl her age wants to be. Athletic body, blonde hair, blue eyes, nice curves. Taking care of herself and living in Miami, thousands of miles away from where she started.
But then I think about her condo. That one little room. That rice mat. Her clothes stacked neatly against the wall, not even a dresser to put them in. And she has money. She just doesn’t know what to do with it beyond very simple things like shelter, and clothing, and food.
I wish I was her. I wish I knew nothing. I wish someone had taken me to the jungle to live in Cort’s camp. I wish I had been saved the way she was.
Or at the very least, I wish I could’ve been someone’s savior.
But it’s way too late for that. And if she wants an answer, then fuck it. I’ll spell it out.
“The only way to control a monster is to hold monstrous things over him. We’ll get to me in a moment, but let’s start with them.” I nod my head at the stack of photos again. “In fact, let’s start with Benny. Good ol’ Benny. My friend. My big brother. My benefactor. My biggest supporter. There are more pictures in there. But trust me, darlin’, they’re in a separate envelope for a reason. You don’t want to open that one. You don’t want to see those pictures.”