AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My eyes went over to Miller, finding her face somewhat impassive.
See, the men freaked when they saw a woman battered and abused. As they should. As I would expect from the kind of men I employed.
But it had always been different with Miller and Jules.
They hadn’t gone red with rage when a client came in beaten and crying and begging for help. They didn’t pace like wild animals, just waiting for the chance to go off and exact justice.
There was always an almost troubling calmness to them in the face of a battered woman.
Once, about a year into taking her on the team, I asked Miller about it.
“To you, this is shocking,” she had said, shaking her head at me. “Men using their strength against women. As it should be. You are good men. You abhor the idea of someone attacking someone weaker than yourselves. But you have to understand, Quin, none of this is fucking shocking to us. Women. We take runs and carry sticks to beat off anyone who might jump out of the woods. We keep keys between our fingers when we walk to our cars because any man we pass could turn into a predator, could try to make us their prey. From the moment we become aware of the fact that we have, historically, been open game for the male sex, it is something we have to constantly think about. Should we go into that bathroom in the movie theater when the movie lets out after-hours? What if someone is hiding in one of the stalls? Was that just the house settling, or was someone outside my window? You get to walk this earth not constantly worried that someone will attack and rape you. We don’t get that luxury. So when it happens, because we know it could happen at any time, it doesn’t surprise us. It is a grim, ugly reality we are aware of daily.”
“What do you have to say?” I asked her when she said nothing about the wife.
“I say it is the right thing to do. But that we don’t go into this half-cocked. I know Kai wants to charge in there tomorrow, guns blazing, and get her out. But, honestly Quin, the abuse is likely long-standing. I think that was how she saw Fenway as an escape. I’m sure it is worse now with the betrayal. But I’m sure she can withstand it for a few weeks while we get a real, concrete plan in place that doesn’t end up with half of us dead by Russian bodyguards.”
I took a breath, nodding. There was one thing you could count on Miller for, and that was a level head.
“Alright, well, then we stay here until the Fenway deal is done,” I agreed, looking around at the team. “Then we need to find a place to rent out with no questions asked. We need to find supplies. And we need to get Finn and Ranger here. Once the Fenway deal is over, it needs to look like we left the country. They need to go back to their status quo. Then we can go in. I hope no one had any plans for Christmas.”
That was more or less a joke.
None of us had any plans for any holiday.
What little family we had between the lot of us generally didn’t want us at their dinner tables. And that was okay. That was the life we chose.
“Christmas in Russia,” Miller mused, sighing out her breath. “Well, at least it will be a white Christmas. And New Year. And fucking Easter.”
“Who is going to talk to Kai?” Smith asked, jerking his head toward my room across the hall.
“It’d be the perfect job for Jules,” Miller suggested, smile pulling slightly at her lips. “But since she’s not around, I will do it. It might sound better coming from me,” she announced, moving past me, swiping my keycard out of my breast pocket as she did so.
“This is going to be one for the books,” Lincoln announced, moving to pile all Miller’s shit to one side of the bed so he could sit down.
It would, too.
Luckily, we came into the country with fake IDs and passports claiming we were from Florida. It might not work forever. The cover likely wouldn’t hold up to too much scrutiny.
But, if we were going to do this right, that meant we were going to have to clean house.
Meaning everyone inside the Korol compound would likely end up in a bath of lye before New Years. If anyone was left alive, they could come digging. If they dug deep enough for long enough, they would find us. And that was something we couldn’t allow.
“Doing a lot of good this year,” Lincoln added, fiddling with some torture-looking device he found on Miller’s nightstand. Chicks with their beauty gadgets. “I don’t think I have ever known you to be quite so philanthropic, Boss.”
