Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 77124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Maybe Jan had wanted to eliminate her as a threat?
Or maybe he was holding onto her to use her against me? Against the Family?
I had no fucking idea.
I just knew she was gone.
And the only person I could think of who might have her was Jan.
If he’d decided to take her to Staten Island for… whatever reason, he would quickly learn that the house was cleaned up. And Matej was missing.
“I’m going back to Staten Island,” I declared, thrusting Fury’s leash at Brio, who I knew could handle her, even as she snarled at him, then rushed back to the cross street for a cab. “Do you know Keith? The hacker,” I said, looking at Miko, who seemed to know everyone.
“Pizza roll guy? Yeah.”
“See if Venezio can get any cameras or something on this street,” I said, waving down toward it.
“On it,” Venezio said, nodding.
“And we’re coming with you,” Gio said, moving into the street to throw his own arm up as Matej came with me into the waiting cab.
If Jan had taken Saylor to Staten Island, the only way he could have done so was to drive. Which maybe gave us the only bit of good luck we had so far.
Because the ferry was faster.
So if it took them an hour or so to get from Washington Heights to Staten Island, and we’d wasted somewhere around the same time taking the ferry and going to the warehouse, then we were only maybe an hour, tops, behind them when we got there.
Saylor was strong.
She would fight, stall for time.
She had to know I would be coming for her.
“What is it that your brother wanted from you?” I asked Matej as we made our way from the studio back to the port.
“Money,” Matej admitted, shrugging.
“Did he get it?”
“No,” he said, exhaling hard. “That was why you found me as you did. I imagine he would have come back after I had some time to… think about my situation,” Matej said, being careful not to confess too much where he could be overheard.
Sure, New York cabbies had likely heard just about everything. But any head of a criminal empire worth his salt would never have his business getting around like that.
“Would you have ever told him?”
“No. What was left to take from me?” he asked.
“Do you think he could have tried to use Saylor against you?”
“How? When I didn’t know her?”
In the front, the cabbie took a phone call, chattering away in another language, giving us a bit of freedom to get more specific.
“Would Jan think he could hurt her to get you to give him what he wanted?”
“Perhaps. I don’t know if he was thinking that far ahead. He’s never been one to be very good at multiple-step thinking. My best guess is he found out that Saylor was watching him, didn’t like it, and he just grabbed her impulsively.”
“And knowing that he was squatting at the row house, he wouldn’t have wanted to leave any evidence of an assault or murder behind. So he decided to cart her back to the basement with you to figure out what she knew, and what she planned to do with that information.”
“If she is smart, she will play games with him,” Matej said. “Act like she was working with me, that she might have access to what he wanted. That sort of thing. Knowing I was on the loose, he would be desperate to get access to the money before I move it.”
“She’s smart,” I insisted.
No, I didn’t exactly know what she would be like when being tortured, but I’d seen her in action a few times. She was able to think on her feet, keep control over her emotions.
And, maybe more valuable than any of that, she was stubborn as fuck. She’d goad Jan regardless of the pain she knew she’d sustain for it.
I couldn’t say she’d never fold. Everyone had a limit. But I hoped, prayed, that we would be able to get to her before she reached it. Before Jan got what he wanted from her. And then had no reason to keep her breathing.
“Then she has quite the advantage over my brother,” Matej said, reaching out to squeeze my shoulder. “We will get her,” he said, the certainty in his voice giving me some renewed faith.
Yes.
But how much would she suffer before then?
Memories of all the blood I’d cleaned up all day came flashing back to me. That had been pure revenge, and it had been brutal.
I could only imagine that Jan was even more cold-blooded and ruthless when it came to torture.
Majek, Gio, Elio, Ciro, Miko, and I all made our way onto the ferry, choosing to stand on the deck without discussing it. The bite of the night air cooled some of the heat of my anger, allowing me to focus past it, get my head in the game.