Chapter Seventeen
Zane kissed Ellen on the temple. She lay still wrapped up in the sheets, sleeping soundly after they had made love more times than he ever thought he could manage.
She was just as insatiable as him. It really was like they were trying to make up for the five years they’d been apart.
He gave a sad little smile before sending a text to Bryce. If anything happened, he wanted to make sure someone could get her out of there quickly. He knew he could count on the older man to make sure she was safe.
Already dressed in the jeans and t-shirt he had brought, Zane slipped his gun into the back of his pants. It wasn’t the most comfortable of spots, but he figured walking through a casino strapped so everyone could see wasn’t such a great idea, and would probably end with him dead or arrested sooner than later.
He crept his way out of the room and down the corridor to an elevator. Soon he was right back at the main casino floor. The slot machines were just as loud, bright, and annoying as they had been earlier that evening.
With purpose, he moved toward the back of the building until he found a door leading outside. After a brisk walk down the path, he was sure he was on the right track.
The building made a sort of small U where he found a white van idling nearby and Stefano chatting with some Hispanic men.
The sleazy guy Ellen had pointed out before at the party pulled out a gun and made a face at Zane. He stopped in his tracks, ready to draw if he needed to. If he was going to go down, he’d take at least one of those bastards with him.
Maybe they knew all along and decided killing him in the middle of the night was easier. Lord knew the local Russian mob got enough practice at that sort of thing.
Zane frowned. It didn’t make sense though. If that were the case, they would have just come in the room and taken them both out.
“Relax, Yegor,” Stefano said.
The other man continued to eye Zane but placed his gun back in his holster.
“Come. Come,” Stefano said.
He waved a hand for Zane to come to the back of the van. The doors swung wide open as they stared at something there.
Zane strode forth, not giving any hint of his nervousness. He needed to be as assured as any of the rest of them. It was the only way he would make it out alive.
When he was finally standing next to Stefano, he stared into the truck. He narrowed his eyes, sure that there was some sort of mistake.
“What?” he said. He turned to Stefano in confusion. “Computers? You want me to get rid of computers?”
Stefano snorted like it was the funniest thing he’d ever heard. “Not computer. Laptop.”
Zane blinked a few times. This made no sense. Sure, some of the small-time guys would deal in electronics, but most were too easily traceable nowadays, and there just wasn’t near the money in it that there used to be. This just didn’t seem like something that a man like Stefano would be personally handling.
Stefano nodded to Yegor.
The other man stepped forward and pulled out a blue handle. A sharp blade popped out, and he gave Zane little smile like he might enjoy using that blade on him.
Like he’d get the fucking chance. Zane shot him a smirk.
Yegor placed the blade at the edge of the laptop and easily popped the top part off. He lifted the screen, and it all became clear once Zane spotted the two large bags of white powder.
He nodded once. “That makes more sense.”
“You deliver this once the van is full and bring money back,” Stefano said.
Zane crossed his arms. Now it was time for the money talk. For a guy like himself, it was expected he would only care about the money.
“And my pay?”
“Two percent.”
Zane snorted. “With that much product, I get caught, I’ll never see daylight again.” Besides, there was no way a man like him would take that.
“Seven.”
For a moment he wondered if Yegor was going to pull out his knife again until Stefano laughed.
“See,” Stefan said and laughed even harder. “I like you. We do five and call it day.”
Zane gave a firm nod. Four was the going rate for his level of expertise, and he suspected that Stefano did actually like him going a tad higher. Either that or he was planning on killing him when the job was over.
He had found that with people like this, liking someone and business just didn’t mix.
Not that it mattered. He didn’t plan on making his way back. If it was the last thing he did, Zane planned on taking down the son of a bitch and making sure Ellen was safe from his people.
“Okay,” Stefano said to the two other men nearby. “Load up and head back for another shipment.”
* * *
Ellen rolled over and felt the cool bed.
“Zane?”
No answer. Her heart thumped hard in her chest. She never did hear just what the man at the party wanted to talk about, but she had a feeling that whatever it was, it couldn’t have been anything good.
She hurried out of bed and dressed in the casual change of clothes she’d brought.
As she was lacing up her shoes, the phone next to the bed started to vibrate.
Ellen nearly launched herself at it, hoping beyond hope that it was Zane telling her where he was. The last thing she wanted was to go wandering the halls looking for him.
“Zoe?” She swiped across the screen and put the phone to her ear. “Zo?”
On the other end, she could hear labored breathing, and for a moment, wondered if she’d been butt dialed or maybe even sex dialed.
She gagged a little at the thought.
“El,” Zoe said.
Her voice was faint on the other end of the line, and she sounded like it took a lot for her to even get it out.
“Zo? What’s wrong?”
She could hear the harsh wheezing as she sucked in a breath of air.
“Somethings wrong,” she said. “I can’t…”
“What’s wrong?”
Ellen knew the panic in her voice, but there was no hiding it. This was her baby sister. She’d go through hell to help her.
“The drugs,” she said. “I think I did too much.”
Her blood ran cold. All the ODs she’d seen the past week flashed like a neon sign in her mind.
“Where are you? What room?”
Ellen shook, her hand on the door of the room as she waited for a reply.
“1910.”
She rushed out the door and raced down the hall. There was no point wasting breath on telling her to wait there for her. She needed to get there fast.
The elevator dinged loudly, and she got on just as fast.
19.
Ellen sprinted off the elevator and skidded to a halt just outside the room.
She knocked hard on the door.
“Zoe?”
She was sure the people around there could hear, but she didn’t care.
On the other side, she could hear Zoe crying softly, likely too far gone to open the door.
Ellen pulled out her own keycard and prayed that all those stories the paramedics had told her about getting into a hotel room were true.
She slipped the card into the crack of the door and moved it down until she felt it slip just a little further in, separating the mechanism keeping the latch in place. She pulled down on the handle and praised all things holy for letting her find a way in.
Ellen found her sister on the floor of the hotel, cell phone still in hand.
“Zo,” she said and knelt to cradle the fragile woman.
“I’m… sorry,” Zoe rasped out.
Ellen shushed her as she pulled Zoe’s hair back from her now drenched face. Her whole body was covered in a layer of sweat.
This was bad. This was very bad.
“What the fuck are you doing in here?”
She whirled around to find Zoe’s boyfriend Billy standing in the door with two other men.
“She’s overdosing,” Ellen said quickly. “We need to get her to the hospital.”
He stared hard at her for a moment before something lit up just behind his eyes.
He grunted. “I knew I’d seen you before, prancing around the part with that poser pal of yours, stealing my fucking job right out from under me.” He pointed a finger at her. “You’re the fucking sister. I thought you wouldn’t come up for air for a while, but here you are, showing your face here, almost daring Stefano to kill you.” He let his gaze trail down her body as a smile fell on his face. “Not so mousy now. Maybe I should have given you a go.”
Ellen turned back to her sister. “Please, we need to get her to the hospital. It’s your girlfriend, don’t you care?”
Billy turned back to the men standing behind him. “We aren’t going anywhere until we pay a little visit to the boss. I think he’d be very interested in knowing you’re here.”
“No,” Ellen said and wrapped her body around Zoe. “We have to get her help.”
A hard blow landed across her cheek, and she glared up at Billy as he seethed over her.
“You and your fucking sister need to learn just who’s in fucking charge here.”
She stared defiantly back at him. He might hit her, but he wasn’t going to kill her until the boss gave the okay. So between now and that time, she needed to figure out just what the hell she was going to do.
“Now get up,” Billy said and pulled out a gun to fix on her.
Ellen stood and watched as the two other men hauled Zoe up off the ground. As long as they were together, she’d find a way out of this mess.