Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 96714 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96714 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
I was about to respond when a text came through, and I had no choice but to return to business. It was from Vlad. The women had been captured and were currently with the police force, more specifically the men on our payroll. This was a good thing, but I still wasn’t happy. If word got out that women had been taken, or even the intention of taking from me, there would be backlash.
I should have known the little trick Ivan played of faking his death would come back to bite me in the ass. Not only that, Ivan’s death had created a ripple of problems, the main one being Oleg’s territory. All that traitor needed was one implied weakness and he’d gone out of his way to exploit it. We were all forced to deal with the consequences.
Now Ivan had plans to put a brand-new brigadier in place. He had two people in mind. I had my suspicions of the two, but there was no way he’d be able to choose between them. Not only that, I didn’t believe The Butcher and The Beast could be the two people to bring Oleg’s territory back into control. There was just no way that could happen. Both were not known for being “clean” about it. They had kill rates that rivaled each other. They would turn the territory into a bloodbath.
Now that the women had been returned and were going to be processed, there was nothing for me to do other than work. The only problem I had was Charlotte. She couldn’t come with me to work. The casino was no place for her. I leaned forward and gave Hubert the details of dropping me off, and then taking Charlotte home to my penthouse suite where I’d been staying during this past month.
“What’s happening?” she asked.
“I’ve got work to do.”
“And what do I need to do?”
“Get ready for this evening. The clothes purchased for today will be delivered in a couple of hours. Wear the red dress for this evening when we join Ivan for dinner.”
Ivan’s dinner invitations were always few and far between. In fact, I think I could count on one hand the number of times he’d invited me to dinner. I’d been aware of the dinners he had with Slavik and Andrei, but they had only come since they’d been married.
Was his only interest in my wife? I had to wonder if Ivan took the women out for a test drive? No, that was complete nonsense. Ivan wasn’t the kind of man who shared. If there was a woman he wanted, he’d keep her to himself. I knew enough about Ivan to know he was a selfish bastard.
Hubert pulled up to the casino and without waiting for him to let me out, I did so, slammed the door closed, and slapped the top of the car, letting him know he could leave. I waited against the sidewalk, aware of people staring. I was a powerful man who drew the eye.
Once the car was back in traffic, I made my way back into the casino, and this time, I went straight toward the elevator, which would take me up to the main office. I didn’t have any other business to conduct, so I needed to get to my desk. The moment I did, I sat down, and Vlad knocked on my door. I called for him to enter.
“Everything is taken care of?”
“The women are currently being processed and will be returned to their homes. I also made sure to include some compensation for their troubles.”
I leaned back in my chair. “And their … health?”
“Most of them were scared. They’d been drugged but it didn’t look like they’d been beaten or hurt. A rather sloppy and amateur setup.”
“Like it was last minute?” I asked.
“Exactly.”
I frowned.
“What are you thinking?”
“I’m wondering if our good friends Hank and Benjamin are being controlled by someone else, someone bigger?”
“How is that possible? They’re two nobodies.”
“Rising the ranks of power, and easy puppets to use as no one would suspect.”
Vlad frowned as I stared at him. It would make sense as to why they were stepping up their operations, but also how they’d been able to set up such a sloppy trafficking gig.
Professionals had men in place. They had private places not easy to locate. They moved quickly, swiftly. Drugging girls took a lot of time, a lot of movement, as they were unable to move quickly. There was a lot happening now, and I didn’t want to take anything for granted.
“I can look into it,” Vlad said.
Benjamin and Hank were two rival city drug pins. They were low level, sneaky, but stupid at the same time. I’d dealt with them a couple of times over the years, and they’d been easy to squash.
Tapping my fingers on the desk, I thought about how hard it was to go from drug running, to creating a new drug that inhibited women, and then stealing them away. It wasn’t as simple as it sounded. Shit like that was easy to detect.