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)
She glances down at the envelope in her hands, studying it for a moment. Then she looks back up at me. But she doesn’t say anything. I don’t know what kind of sick imagination she’s got, but I highly doubt it’s sophisticated enough to deduce what’s actually being done to the people on that tape.
Still, she’s smarter than she thinks. And she’s seen more than most. So whatever she’s guessing, it’s close enough.
“Benny told me a critical part of his whole story one afternoon. I didn’t understand it at the time. Not fully, anyway. This was after he had that first chat with me about Eoin. My fight was a couple weeks away. We left Bora Bora and were in the Maldives. Soaking up the sun. Drinking stupid drinks. Eating too much. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I wasn’t getting drunk. I don’t actually like to drink. I don’t like to lose control like that. Especially after what he told me that day. He was pining over a woman, an older woman who didn’t see much potential in him, I suppose. And he said something like… ‘Does she even know who I am? Does she have any idea what I did to get where I am? Does she have any idea how far I’d go to get more?’
“It gave me chills at the time. Because up until that point I hadn’t seen this side of him. He was a happy man, always lookin’ for a party. But this rejection, it triggered something.” I pause here to laugh. Because it just now occurs to me that the woman he was pining over was the very one who started me on this path to find Irina.
Macks. The Ring of Fire reporter.
“Anyway. He told me what he did to give the Board of Directors control should he ever stray from his path.”
I stop here to look at Irina. She’s staring at me, not even blinking. Her voice is just a whisper when she finally finds her words. “What did he do?”
“It’s all in there, darlin’. You see, that envelope you’re holding contains Benny’s initiation package. It’s filled with the faces of the men in the group he belonged to.”
She looks down at the envelope again. Like this is enough to make her open it back up and take another peek.
I wait to see if she does that, but instead, she sucks in a breath and returns her attention to me.
So I continue. “Udulf, Lazar, and Benny were in the same ward. That’s what they called their groups. Wards. They had control of certain things. Pharmaceutical companies, oil refineries, cargo ships. Chemical plants. Entire industries. It’s all parceled out, little by little, to the men in these untouchable families. Like royal families. Old bloodlines.
“And when you get initiated in, they take you somewhere. Somewhere where no one looks twice when little girls are prancing around with barely anything on, handing out towels in a bathhouse. A place where no one looks twice when the screams echo down the misty hallways. And they make you do things there. Well, make them? I’m not really sure they make them. I’m not quite convinced that Benny didn’t enjoy it. Or, at the very least, look forward to it.”
“Oh, my God. They…” She doesn’t finish.
“Yeah. It’s as bad as you think. It’s worse than you think, Irina. There’s no way that little mind of yours can possibly imagine the evil happening on that tape. The whole thing is meticulously documented. Copies are made. The Board keeps a copy, obviously. And then everyone in the ward is given a copy too. And evidence of their evil deeds are given to you as well. Mutually assured destruction. You take these secrets to the grave, no matter what. Because if you don’t, God help you—you will be begging the Devil to take you to Hell instead. And they will not let you die, no. It’s not as easy as dying.”
Irina picks up the photos on the couch and slides them back inside the envelope. Then puts the tape case back inside too, setting it all on the coffee table.
“Do you have any idea why these men send us to the Ring, Irina?”
“What do you mean?”
“Do you think it’s for prizes?”
“Isn’t it?”
“Well, some of it, of course. But they own everything already. All they do is shuffle around the percentages that each man gets to control. They do that in the fights. What billionaire needs another fuckin’ yacht, ya know? They make us fight for sport. For fun. And to win back their evidence from the members of their ward. That’s what was happening when Cort had his last fight with Pavo. Udulf and Lazar were cancelling their evidence. They were going to combine their holdings and be partners. If Cort lost, that is. But Cort won and everything changed. The power distribution was suddenly very uneven.”