Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 45819 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 229(@200wpm)___ 183(@250wpm)___ 153(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45819 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 229(@200wpm)___ 183(@250wpm)___ 153(@300wpm)
“I don’t intend to be caught,” I replied coolly. “They won’t know of our involvement. And you’ll be kept out of it entirely.”
He cocked his head at me. “The authorities will suspect cartel involvement in his unfortunate disappearance.”
“And they won’t have any evidence to lead back to you,” I assured him. “They won’t be able to pin anything on you. Crawford won’t cause you any more trouble.”
He leaned back in his chair, considering me. “You don’t strike me as a subtle man. But I’m trusting you to handle this delicately. Make sure this doesn’t blow back on me. That would be a very unfortunate end to our friendship.”
I offered him a grim nod. “I know how to make a man disappear. Don’t worry about that.”
“I trust Massimo with my life,” Gian interjected.
“Despite his brutish appearance, he can handle a situation like this carefully and quietly,” Enzo provided, backing me up with a bit of a jibe.
With my imposing size, I looked the part of the dumb muscle to the brothers’ wickedly clever, cold composure. But I’d been sure to educate myself despite my impoverished upbringing, a value instilled by my parents when I was a boy. I’d lost that innocence quickly and brutally at a young age, but I hadn’t stopped reading everything I could get my hands on. Knowledge was as good a weapon as a knife, a truth that Enzo and Gian also understood.
“George Crawford is a dead man,” I promised Duarte. “You don’t have anything to worry about.”
To his superiors, Crawford appeared to be a model agent, but he was getting rich by doing favors for a cartel. I would put an end to his promising career, and he’d never put his innocent fiancée at risk ever again.
The memory of Evelyn lying on that basement floor, broken and bleeding, flashed across my mind. It took effort to prevent my fists from clenching with renewed anger. That motherfucker, Crawford, was the reason she’d been targeted. He was just as responsible for her victimization as the men who’d kidnapped and beaten her.
Soon, he would be dead, and Evelyn would be safe from his corruption. I would make sure of it.
Chapter 5
Massimo
It hadn’t been difficult to discover where George Crawford lived. The corrupt bastard kept his DEA friends close during the day, but it’d been easy enough to stalk him, hiding myself in crowds as he moved through the busy streets. Now, I concealed myself in shadows, closing in on my prey in the dead of night.
The lights in their small ground floor apartment had gone out over two hours ago. They should be fast asleep by now.
Both of them: George and Evelyn, his innocent fiancée who had no involvement in my dark underworld. His criminal actions endangered her. That would’ve been reason enough for me to end him, even without my promise to Stefano Duarte.
I approached their building with a nonchalant stride, as though I was returning to my own home after a night out. I doubted any neighbors would take particular notice of me at this hour, but I kept my baseball cap pulled low over my eyes just in case.
Once I reached their front door, I made quick, quiet work of picking the lock with practiced ease. I’d have to move silently if I didn’t want to rouse George, who was likely to keep a weapon near his bed, especially after Evelyn had been targeted.
As it turned out, navigating their cramped, one bedroom apartment was almost laughably easy. I was quiet as a shadow as I moved through the darkened space, crossing the small living room in five strides before reaching the threshold of their bedroom. Soft illumination glowed through the closed curtains, the ever-present city lights impossible to shut out entirely. They caught on her platinum hair, the sheen drawing my eye to where she lay in the bed. Her fair complexion seemed to glow, like she was made of moonlight.
His slightly darker form shaped around her delicate body, an arm draped possessively over her waist. His hand curved around her hip, locking her tightly in his embrace.
My muscles tensed with a pulse of rage, an echo of the fury that’d gripped my mind in that basement and caused me to murder Duarte’s associates. This motherfucker dared to hold her when he was the reason she’d been kidnapped and brutalized. If not for me, she’d be dead now. Because of him and his selfish, greedy choices.
I took a step toward him, drawing my knife from the sheath at my belt. The wickedly sharp blade glinted in the dim lighting, flashing brighter than her moonlight hair.
My gaze flicked back to her fragile form, and my steps toward him halted. Her slender fingers were wrapped tightly around his forearm where it was braced at her waist, clinging to him in her sleep. A thick white bandage encircled her wrist, healing the wounds that’d been inflicted by her kidnappers’ cruel restraints.