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“I pay for your rent and keep you in the prison where you choose to live. Do you really want to pull the ‘It’s not my business’ card?”
“Do you really want to know something that might possibly be illegal? I’m good with computer stuff, okay? Leave it at that.”
I hopped off the bed with so much force, I was surprised I didn’t launch right into the ceiling. “Illegal? Are you kidding?”
She rolled her eyes as though I was some embarrassing older sister telling her not to listen to loud music. “Don’t give me that look,” I snapped. She had no idea what I’d been through the past few days, and I wasn’t going to let her look down on me like I was some lame older sister who didn’t understand. “Daisy has run off with some head of the Miami Mafia or some shit, and now I have you getting involved with the dark web?”
She had the nerve to lean back in her chair and roll her eyes. “It’s not the dark web. And Miami Mob? What does that mean? Not the Black Thorn guys that are wandering around, right? Those guys are bad news.”
The blood drained from my face so quickly that the room started to spin. As quickly as I stood up, I was falling back onto the bed, catching myself with the palms of my hands before I fell fully back.
“I… Alek Rishka. Daisy is involved with Alek Rishka.”
I wanted Layla to be confused. To be out of her depth. To look at me like I was the crazy one. But instead she seemed… relieved? “I can’t believe it. Daisy was always so meek. But maybe he’ll be good for her. I mean, she’ll never live in a trailer park again, right? His brother is a psychopath, though.”
Fuck my life. I burst out laughing. At this point, it was the only thing I could do besides cry. “What the fuck do you know about Borya?”
“I might be confined to this house, but I pay attention to what’s going on. And since you live in Miami, I pay close attention to what’s going on there. Ever since Black Thorn arrived and started making their power grab, things have been shaking up everywhere, even online. People talk. I’ve just been listening. The fact that they’ve had Alek’s own brother working against him is gossipy, and the internet is just as gossipy as anywhere else. Probably more so, considering everyone is anonymous.”
“And the latest gossip is that Black Thorn is trying to take over and using Borya to do it?”
“No. The latest gossip is that Borya has been running around with some slutty new girlfriend. Black Thorn is raging, and now they’re on the warpath for him and Alek. Bodies are about to start falling and blood is about to start flowing. Probably a good thing you’re here. And I’d recommend Daisy get the hell out of there too, but I’m guessing Alek is already moving her somewhere safe.”
Little did Layla know that the safest place for Daisy was a reinforced panic room at the bottom of the very mansion where Alek lived.
“So, when I called you a million times and you didn’t answer, you were fine. Just to verify. And why the hell is the internet calling the new girlfriend slutty?”
She frowned. “You called?” All of a sudden, she reached over to pull out her phone and touched the screen a few times. “Crap. I was in the middle of a web design job and had put on ‘do not disturb’. I must not have turned it off.”
Great. I had come out here for no reason at all. Borya was going to lose his damn mind. And now I knew that my sister, who had always been a little off her rocker, was in fact more dangerous than I had ever given her credit for. And the internet was slut shaming me for no reason at all. Great.
“I have to go. I have a very pissed off mafia man who I’m going to have to deal with, no thanks to you.” I started heading down the stairs, the old wood creaking with my weight.
Layla would have a million questions, but right now I didn’t want to answer any of them. I was too infuriated. At her. At myself. Why didn’t I know she was like this? Why didn’t I know my sister better than this?
But all of this was going to have to wait a little bit because Borya was coming. And when he got here, there would be precious little time to explain my side of events before his anger boiled over.
And then I would learn the real consequences of pissing off Borya Rishka.
At this point, I knew he wouldn’t actually hurt me. But why was I still terrified that once he found me, he would take over my life in an irrevocable way?
