How wrong I was.
For the very next second, I saw the man hit the floor, blood pooling around him. It happened so fast, the kill, that I had to slam my hands over my mouth to keep from screaming. My entire body trembled, my knees bucking below me on the crate in panic.
I staggered down from my perch and away from the window, my stomach lurching. I’d grown up in a crime family. I knew what my brothers did. But seeing Arko kill like this in cold blood made me feel sick to my stomach. My brothers never killed without motive, and Arko had none, from what I saw. He killedthat man after getting the answers he wanted, and nothing in my head justified such an act.
I pressed myself against the shed wall, breathing slowly through my mouth in long bursts so I didn’t hurt. I needed to get away, but my legs felt numb.
Before I could convince my body to move, to run back to safety, I heard the pool house door open and footsteps setting out.
I pressed myself further into the shadows, crouching to my haunches and folding into myself in an attempt to make myself as small as possible.
“Get rid of the body,” Arko ordered. “We need to make sure it’s never found and tied back to us.”
A lump formed in my throat, the shock and terror now giving way to disappointment. After what Anya and Anja said about his supposed kindness, what I saw tonight made no sense at all.
Maybe they didn’t know Arko at all. The tears were threatening to fall down my face, and I was about to drift away, into my own head, until they passed, when another man approached.
“Did he say anything about the girls, boss?” he asked, his voice etched with concern. “We haven’t been able to find where they’re being kept?”
Immediately, my ears perked up. Girls? What girls?
“Oh, we got it out of the bastard before I killed him,” Arko said, and I could hear the vengeance in his voice. “Yuri here has the location. Make sure you don’t frighten them during the rescue.”
“Of course, boss.” The new member of their party said. “Still can’t believe it. I heard some of those girls are barely into adulthood.”
“How many are there?” Arko asked, his voice tinged with such clear pain that I felt my heart shatter.
“At least three dozen. He was transporting the younger ones for the Korzynski outfit tonight.”
I clenched my fists tight, my nails digging into my skin to remain quiet through the disgust. They were talking about human trafficking, I noted with a shudder and put two and two together. And whoever that man was, he was someone behind the ring.
“I want those girls found and safe by midnight,” Arko ordered. “And I want the rest of that operation burned to the ground. Make it look like a rival gang hit. I don’t want our name anywhere near this.”
“And the girls?”
“Make sure they get medical attention, and for God’s sake, find out if they have families to go back to. But if it’s not safe for them to go back where they came from, then get them new papers and identities,” Arko sighed. “Set them up somewhere far from here.”
The men soon began discussing the rescue mission. I realized I had to get out of here before Arko saw me and back into the house before he noticed I wasn’t there. This was my chance, while they were distracted.
I crawled around to the opposite edge of the shed, away from outside the pool house where they stood and talked, and then jumped to my feet to rush to the house before they moved.
I took the longer way back, my mind reeling the whole time, knowing the trees would provide cover if any of their eyes wandered. This whole time, I thought Arko only cared about looking out for himself and his family.
My heart plummeted at knowing how wrong I’d been. He wasn’t perfect. He was still a murderer in every right, but I’d caught him killing a monster. The tears fell down my cheeks as I ran, thinking about all the horrible judgments I’d passed.
Anja and Alena hadn’t been wrong in what they said. Tonight, right in front of my eyes, Arko killed to save three dozen innocent women. Victims of human trafficking. He was arranging medical care and safe passage home for them, and even new lives if they needed them.
By the time I got inside the house, I wasn’t foolish enough to believe Arko was an angel. But I knew, without a doubt, that he wasn’t the selfish man I’d made him out to be, either. In some weird, strange way, I felt proud of him that night. And that made things between us feel even more complicated.
Chapter 17 - Arko
I snuck into the house after watching my men leave for the pier, where the rescue mission was already underway. They left to check the status and report to me in the morning. Today had been a long fucking day for the whole lot of us, but at least it ended well for those innocent women.
If I could bring back to life that trafficker I shot dead tonight, I’d do it without thinking. And maybe next time, I’d kill him in slower ways. Lucky for him, I was exhausted, and a bullet seemed like the quickest way to bed.
I locked the doors to the side entrance behind me, shutting out the sounds of the crickets outside. The house was dark and quiet, not a soul awake.
I skipped dinner, and the staff had already wrapped up for the evening. Usually, I would have raided the fridge, but tonight, even the thought of grabbing a snack from the kitchen felt arduous. Besides, my back hurt like hell. I’d been on my feet the whole day and had a strange crick in my neck that travelled down my spine.
