Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 91423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
“One of them,” I smile.
“If this is true…”
“Why don’t we go up and look?”
Eric leads me up to the attic. These old English places have a very specific layout and being historic, those layouts are on file. There are also very strict rules against modifying them.
He opens the door to the attic, and sure enough, piss weak English sun is doing its best to stream through the hole in the ceiling. Ella is not there. The room, sparsely but somewhat nicely furnished, is empty, save for plaster on the floor and a few broken tiles that I already warned him about.
Eric stands and stares for a moment, then lets out a laugh that sits somewhere between impressed and deranged. “My gods, man,” he says, clapping his thigh. “I wouldn’t have imagined it, but you did it.”
“I am never going to work for you,” I tell him. “And if you ever, and I do mean ever allow anybody to put their hands on my wife again, I can promise you it will be the last thing you do.”
“You expect me to protect her?”
“Yes,” I say. “I expect you to make it very clear to everybody under your umbrella that the Levin family was never one to be trifled with.”
I am not going to kill him. If I was to do that, the network he has spent years putting together would fracture in an instant, and instead of being a largely controllable entity, we would face a world full of splintered psychopaths each vying for control.
Eric smiles at me. “You like me, don’t you.” He says it flatly, like it is a simple matter of fact. “I’ve always liked you too, Aiden. If you’re going to marry that woman, I can promise you an interesting life.”
“I’m leaving,” I tell him. “And I don’t want to see you any time soon. Thanks to you, I had to get my badly injured brother out of the hospital and fly him over here. He’s going to have damp in his wound, and it will be your fault.”
“Sounding faintly petulant,” Eric says. “But understandable. You’ve won this round.”
“This is the last round. I don’t want any more rounds. If there’s another round, the next round will be rounds in you. Get it?”
Eric smirks.
“Don’t worry about paying for the roof,” he says. “It’s been a pleasure seeing you again.”
I cannot say the same. So I don’t.
I leave Mr. Red’s house, and get into the waiting car. We are swept up individually to the airport, where we board the private jet. Everyone has gotten on ahead of me and the pilot has the engines idling. When I get on board, Ella is sitting at the front in the jump seat. She looks pale and slightly anxious. Luke is stationed behind her. The doctor is across the aisle, tending to Leo.
As soon as I get on, the door is shut and the pilot begins taxiing. The sooner we get off this foreign soil, the better.
Ella gets up and practically runs to me, bubbling over with apologies.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know how I got all mixed up with that guy. I swear I had barely gotten here.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” I tell her. “This one was my fault, all to do with me. I am sorry you were involved.”
“It wasn’t my fault?” she gasps. “It wasn’t a me thing?”
“It was a me thing,” I explain again, because it seems to be taking some time to sink in. “I’m sorry you got messed up in all of this. We have enemies, and those enemies are sometimes dangerous. The game is over. You can’t run anymore. The world just isn’t safe.”
“It really isn’t,” she agrees. “It’s like there’s a never-ending series of evil factions waiting to sweep me away and sell me for parts.”
“So we’re going to take you home now, and when issues arise, we’re just going to have to talk about them.”
“Like normal people,” Luke says. “Like a normal family that all shares one bride.”
Ella is smiling now. She looks better. I take her by the hand and draw her down into one of the seats. The plane is about to take off and the last thing we need is more injuries.
Once the formality of taking off has been undergone, Ella kneels up on the seat and looks back down the plane at Leo. I’m surprised they didn’t talk before, but I suppose the tension of everyone rushing back to the plane didn’t allow for much in the way of good conversation.
“What happened to you?”
“Luke shot me,” he says.
“Oh,” she replies. “Fair enough. Understandable.”
“You don’t even want to know why?” Leo says.
“I assume you were being an insufferable asshole as usual?”
“I am not going to be roasted as well as…”
“Skewered?” Ella pipes up.
“You’re going the right way for a spanking,” I warn her. “Leo has been very unwell.”