Sold to the Bratva King novel · Chapter 26 of 32

Chapter 26: The Roof

I looked at the check for a long time.

I'd never seen that many zeros in one place. Not even in Parker's safe.

The two sisters had stopped loading the van. My landlord's grandson stood in the bay door with a drum of degreaser in his arms, not breathing.

"You know my rule?" I said.

The uncle raised his white eyebrows.

"Accidents," I said. "Never murders. I clean up after fights and falls and stupid men with box cutters. I've never cleaned up a murder for anybody."

I slid the envelope back across my desk with one finger.

"And you're asking me to clean one. For two million dollars. You can't afford my night rate."

The older sister laughed out loud, then covered her mouth.

The uncle didn't laugh.

He leaned on his cane and looked at me the way Lindsey used to look at a stain.

"Little girl," he said. "In my family, when someone says no to two million, we wonder what she is worth dead."

My landlord came out of the hardware store door in his cardigan.

He had the screwdriver out of his pocket and in his hand.

"Sir," he said. "This is a private business."

Behind him came the sisters. Then the grandson, still holding the drum.

The gray sedan on the corner had started its engine.

The uncle looked at all of them.

He picked up his envelope and put it back inside his coat.

"Monday," he said, and walked out to his car.

When it had gone, my hands started shaking so badly I had to sit on the bucket.

My landlord put his screwdriver back in his pocket.

"Your old man would've thrown him out," he said. "You did it better. You made him laugh first."

"He didn't laugh."

"I did," said the older sister.

Sunday night Matvei took me up to the roof.

It was January. The garden beds were humps of snow. The channel below us was black, with ice along the edges.

He'd carried up two tall patio heaters and turned them both on, glowing orange in the dark.

Between them, by the iron rail, he'd dragged the old wooden daybed out of the stairwell and piled every quilt in the warehouse on it.

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