Page 104 of Moros
“Do you think that will work?” Ryanne asked. “You’re not really going to light that place on fire, right? There are innocent people there.”
“If they do what I want, it’ll be a non-issue.” I stood and walked away.
As I exited the house, I could hear Ryanne speaking with Tex and Boss. I knew she would be questioning what my intentions were and what I was actually capable of. But this was the only way of doing this without getting any of my people hurt.
Right now, Pasha was safe—Torez knew he would lose more than his life if anything happened to her.
18
RYANNE “SHORTY” LARWICK
With Tex on standby, Khadri, myself and Boss went to where Musk used to be. I hadn’t been there since the fire but I was surprised to see construction equipment was already there. Where the building itself would be re-erected was a gaping hole with a tractor sitting in it, port-o-potties were sitting on the border of the property to the back and a makeshift office stood where the parking lot would be.
But I didn’t have time to really pay attention to much else.
The nerves in me as we waited was slowly pulsing against the back of my head, and I knew I would be having a migraine soon. That made me wonder how Khadri was feeling as he stood by the window of the newly erected office.
“Would he really go after Torez’s sister?” I whispered to Boss who was scrolling through his phone.
He looked over to where Khadri was standing like darkness and shrugged.
“Moros is a soldier.” Boss explained, softly. “He’s never gone out of his way to do anyone wrong. Torez knows Moros and instead of declining the job or just keep it to what he was paid to do, he not only burned down Musk, he put his hands on Pasha.”
“But the sister had nothing to do with anything.”
“Pasha had nothing to do with anything either.” Boss pointed out. “All she has to do with this is the fact that Moros cares for her. He is using her as bait because he thought that Moros would put himself and the rest of us at risk to get us in the Grotto. He brought his sister into this. None of us did.”
“And what if Khadri does go after her?”
“I hate to say it, because from what I found, she’s a sweet lady, but it is what it is.”
“You can’t mean that?”
“Are you on his side or Torez’s?” Boss demanded. “He already doesn’t trust you because of the whole Todd thing and now you want to walk away again?”
“That’s not fair.” My heart sunk. “I just?—”
“Just what?” Boss asked, his dark eyes digging into me like a blade. “Just what? Do you think this is easy for him? For any of us? When everyone else walked away from him, lied to him, tried to cheat him, aside from me, Pasha was the only one there, her body between him and the dark things.”
I hung my head.
“What are you going to say when the demons come?” Boss ignored my discomfort. “It seems like you’re the woman who will run.”
“You—”
“He can’t handle another betrayal, Ryanne.”
“I didn’t betray him.”
Boss scoffed and stood.
Catching his arm, I pulled him back to the chair.
“I didn’t betray him.”
“Then what would you call it?” Boss asked.
The answers I wanted to give him ranched from it’s none of your business to silence.