Page 48 of The Games of Madmen

To be honest, though, I prefer this version of her over the broken, terrified one.

Pinching the skin together, I clean it as much as I can, and then squeeze the contents of the tube over her wound, flinching when her body shudders from the sting.

“I found a first aid kit and an array of bandages in the bathroom cabinet,” Z informs me, peeling the back from a waterproof bandage and gently applying it over the neatly glued cut. “She’ll need antibiotics just in case of infection.” He pats my back, nodding in approval of my nursing skills.

“We should get you in the shower and then bandage up the wounds on your arms,” I inform her.

“And feet.” Z nods to the soles of her feet, dotted with cuts.

“First, we need to get rid of these bodies.” She drags herself into a sitting position despite both Z and me protesting. “What are you wearing?” Her brow furrows, eyes drinking us in for the first time since we came to meet her.

I look up at Z in his gray sweatpants and black T-shirt and down at myself in the same. Not exactly our usual, high-class attire.

“We were in a hurry,” I grumble in defense.

“Acid won’t work in the types of bathtubs you get over here. It will melt straight through, so we need to cut the bodies up,” Z says too casually, completely ignoring her confusion about our clothes.

“I know that should creep me out,” she mutters, “but the fact that it doesn't, does that make me the bigger freak or him?”

Grinning at her, I shake my head and sit down onto the seat next to her.

“We saw you with bruises the night before this. Is Jeremiah’s violence well known to his brother Adam?”

Swallowing, she looks down, shame washing over her features and heating her cheeks. “He gets possessive. Adam knows that.”

An idea forms in my head. “You can say you got into it with Jeremiah. He’d been drinking and knocked you around and then left in the car. Never came home. You went to bed and woke up. He still wasn’t home.”

“We'll get rid of his body.” Z nods, liking this idea.

I place a hand on her knee and gently squeeze. “We passed a ravine on the way here. I say we load his body into the car and make sure it crashes with a fiery ending into the ravine.”

“It’ll get rid of him and the blood evidence Alyona drenched the car in,” Z says, finishing my thoughts for me.

“Make it look like an accident.” She nods and takes a few seconds to think it through. Then she asks, “And the girl?”

“You said you met her in the club and Adam took her home, right?” I raise a brow in question.

“Yes. She was there to see what you two were up to. Yuri sent her here to spy along with her uncle. She wasn’t here for me.”

“Motherfucker,” Z snarls, seething with anger. “That man knows no boundaries. Does he think we would let him snoop on our business with no consequences?”

“He’s never had to answer for anything he’s done,” Alyona snaps, fuming. “Why would he fear consequences? There are no consequences for him.”

That’s not news. We will deal with Yuri later. This time hewillanswer. Vlad has changed since becoming a father. His loyalties are in protecting their son, and whether he’d like to admit it or not, he knows Yuri poses a serious threat to allthose around him. The piece of shit has already rejected two children for failing to conform to his strict expectations. What will happen when his grandchildren don’t adhere to the same rules? If someone can get to Yuri and take him off the board, I think Vlad would secretly be relieved.

“The girl?” Alyona urges, drawing my attention back to the task at hand.

“Adam has prior complaints against him from women that all got dropped–”

“What?” Alyona interrupts me, waving her hand. “You just barely met him. How do you already know that?”

“You can find out a lot in a few hours,” I inform her.

Of course, as soon as I met the Cunningham brothers, I was going to do my research. Adam owns logistics companies that ship everything and anything in and out of the country. He invests in legitimate companies in financial trouble, uses them to produce counterfeit pharmaceuticals, consumables, and luxury goods, and then ships that junk through his own company.

On top of that, he moves drugs for local biker gangs.

It took one phone call to Viktor to learn that about him.