Page 11 of Ace of Shadows
I don’t want her to be cold while she travels.
4
RUSLAN
“You had her brought back here?” The familiar charming yet equally painful tones of Valentina Greko carry across the kitchen with the force of a slap. “Are you insane?”
“I told you I needed transport.”
“To a safehouse or another hospital,” Valentina snaps. “Not here! Do you have any idea how many rules you’ve broken?”
I keep my back to her, spooning sugar slowly into my full cup of coffee. “I’m sure you’ll tell me.”
“Ruslan, these rules aren’t a game. They’re in place to protect all of us and everything we stand for. What part of that fails to make it through that thick skull of yours?” The angrier she gets, the deeper the Italian notes in her voice become, and I fight an amused smile.
We might all be on the same side here, but that doesn’t stop it from being amusing when she gets pissed off. Valentina’s a firecracker and the best shot out of all of us, which makes herone hell of a good Queen. That doesn't make us friends. Ever since I got here, she’s been trying to lord over me as if my position as Ace isn’t already firmly at the top.
“Look.” After adding my eighth scoop of sugar, I finally turn to face her. “I made a decision and I’m sticking by it.”
“Forget that decision,” booms a deep voice ruined by years of drinking and far too much smoking. “What the fuck were you doing there in the first place?”
Through the dark doorway looms the King. Bradley Doyle. He’s built like a truck and the doorway gasps for breath as Bradley steps through while adjusting the watch on his wrist.
This kitchen isn’t small by any means. Kitted out with only the best cookware and appliances and with enough countertop space that all five of us living here could cook completely unbothered at the same time, it’s almost as big as the entirety of my old shitty apartment.
Bradley makes it look small.
His grey eyes narrow as our eyes lock, and after he finishes fiddling with his watch, he rubs his hand through his tightly waved black hair.
“You don’t think that plane crash was important?” I ask, holding his gaze.
“I think it’s not somethingwecare about,” Bradley replies. “So again, what the fuck were you doing there?”
“That plane came down like a rock. You know how this city gets about planes, and the cops were sniffing around getting their panties in a twist about the drugs. Isn’t it our job to keep the copsoutof sensitive business?”
Bradley’s impassive face doesn’t change. He stands there, staring at me as if he’s waiting to hear a specific bit of information that will satisfy him.
“You told me that if I saw something that needed our attention, then nine times out of ten, I would be right. And I was. That deal would have ended the war none ofyouhave found a solution to.”
Valentina crosses her arms across her chest. “Are you accusing us of not doing our job? You’ve only been here six months. You don’t knowanything.”
“I know that those drugs were the one thing that would end the blood spilling across the streets because some Russians and Italians can’t play nice together. I know that someone sabotaged it, so don’t you think that’s good enough for us to look into?”
“Why the girl?” Bradley demands, ignoring the back and forth between me and Valentina.
“Her dad was murdered. Her mom’s in a coma. I know a hit when I see one.”
“Why leave the mom alive?” Bradley asks, finally moving from his spot near the door and approaching the fridge.
“I can answer that,” comes a third voice. Raven Brady, better known as the Joker, skips into the kitchen with a file in hand. She flashes me a bright smile and passes the blue folder to me, then steals my coffee cup off the counter. “I got what you asked for.”
“Thank you.”
Raven sips my coffee and then immediately gags, her face twisting, and she throws her head back so violently that hermuddy brown curls fly around her pale freckled face like a mane. “Holy shit, dude, how much sugar do you need? Bleh, bleh!”
“Don’t steal my coffee and you don’t need to worry,” I reply, carefully snatching my mug out of her hands.
“You’re going to give yourself diabetes.” She snorts, pulling herself up onto one of the counters to sit.
