I ducked to the side, reaching out and grabbing the barrel in what surprisingly wasn’t the worst idea of the night. The gun went off, and heat scorched across my palm,but I held on, teeth gritted as the recoil jolted us both into the brick.
The gunman yelled, stumbling as I wrenched the weapon free and slammed my shoulder into his chest. He hit the pavement hard, and Broken-Fingers lunged.
I swung the gun toward him. “I wouldn’t,” I warned, ignoring the sting in my palm as I pressed my finger to the trigger.
He froze, eyes wide as I backed up a step, keeping the barrel trained on him. My lungs burned, adrenaline pounding so hard my vision pulsed.
“Now,” I began, “tell me where?—”
“POLICE! DROP THE WEAPON!”
You havegotto be shitting me.
Chapter 55
Ryder
“I’ve told you already, it wasn’t my gun.” I leaned back and kicked my legs up onto the table in what I hoped was a suitably disrespectful manner.
The detective that leaned against the wall lip curled, but he didn’t rise to it. “Ryder?—”
“Mr Finn.”
His jaw twitched. “Mr Finn?—”
“Please,” I drawled, slouching lower in the chair, “call me Ryder.”
His partner with the moustache inhaled slowly through his nose, both men clinging to patience by a thread.
It had been hours. Hours of the same questions asked three different ways. Hours of me giving the same answers and offering nothing I wasn’t willing to give. Hours of fluorescent lights buzzing overhead and the stale stench of the interrogation room scraping against my nerves.
And no word on Violet.
That was the part clawing at the inside of my chest, but I knew I wouldn’t be here much longer.
“I agree toyour offer,” I said, knowing my one phone call had to be important.
“This isn’t a joke,” Roman replied, his deep voice crackling through the cheap handset. “Once you’re in, you’re in. There’s no taking this back. I need you to understand that.”
“You think I care?” I leaned my forehead against the cold wall, exhaling hard. “Roman, you’ve always been my ride-or-die. If you need me as your right hand in the mafia world I’ve never given a shit about, I’ll do it.Ya tvoya suchka.”
I’m your bitch.Which was about to be true.
There was a beat of silence on his end, unusual for Roman, who never hesitated. “You don’t work well with others,” he said finally.
“Fucking hell, Rome. You’ve been fighting with me to join for years, and now you’re uncertain?”
“This is more than just positions and titles,” he said quietly. “If you say yes, you’re under my father’s umbrella. That means protection. Money. Power. But it also means blood and war. I need you to be sure.”
“I’m sure.” I wasn’t even pretending to think twice. “You think I don’t know what you do?”
Roman sighed, and I knew immediately it wasn’t relief. “You’re doing this for her,” he said.
Of course I was. Why else would I pledge my life to the Bratva with no way out but death? Only crazy men agreed.
“You want me or not? Because I’m kind of in deep shit right now.”
“I’m aware. I’ll deal with it.”
