Page 31 of Widow’s Walk (Women of the Mafia #1)
Chapter twenty-six
Blackwell
I ’m wrathful as we get back home, empty-handed.
“Goddamn— k?ram to khodam !” Fuck me ! I pick up a chair and arch it over my head and release it.
I hardly register the crash. “That fucking—” I grab another piece of furniture and slam it on the ground over and over, growling through gnashing teeth.
“ Kīram to mādar-e kasi ke… kīram to in zendegi ,” Motherfucker…
fuck everything , I snarl as pieces of another chair go flying.
But no amount of damage could relieve the ire scorching my insides.
She was right there. “ Goh khordam ,” I fucked up , I mutter and pace furiously.
Literally right on top of me. But I was helpless.
Paralyzed from whatever she shot us all with.
I couldn’t even speak. I couldn’t tell her that she was never on my hit list. That she was under my protection.
That she will always be under my protection.
Tell her that I refuse to marry someone else for power.
That she is empowering enough, no matter her surname.
That yes, I do miss her. My hand goes to my bloodied chest on instinct.
My lungs are burning, my muscles are all constricting, and my head pounds with rage. “ Dāram divoone misham…che ghalati kardam ?” I’m fucking losing it…what the fuck did I do , I mutter, the words muddled.
“Are you done?” Dane says dryly. My head snaps in his direction, glaring at him like I’m locked in on my prey as he sits casually on the windowsill.
“Easy, Blackwell,” Harlan chimes in, going for a soothing voice.
“Don’t,” I snap between gnashing teeth.
He waits a long moment before speaking again. “We’ll find her. We did once, and we’ll do it again.”
Now my eyes snap to lock on Harlan. “She tried to kill me!”
He chuckles and shakes his head. I’m seeing red, a hair from snapping. “She was fucking with you. If she wanted you dead, she would have done it.”
“What the fuck do you mean?” I roar, advancing on him. “She tried to fucking burn me alive!”
“But she didn’t,” he argues. I walk away, shaking my head at his nonsense. “Sinclair is more cognizant of our world and how it works than you think. Than any one of us thinks. She knew that there was a second team and that they would come in just in time to get you out of there.”
I’m staring at the ground, still panting with fury. I turn my head slightly to see him. “You don’t know that.”
He shoves his hands in his pockets. “I do know that. And you do too. You’re just too wrapped up in your own emotional turmoil to think straight.
You’re upset you didn’t get her, I get it.
We were so close to bringing her home. She outsmarted us.
” I find it difficult to look at Harlan when he’s wearing a smirk and trying to hide it.
“I don’t see anything funny about this,” I chop up each word, seething.
“I’m sorry,” he says, his smirk growing and still trying to conceal it. “I know this isn’t funny, but—” He shakes his head more.
“It was brilliant,” Dane pipes in. He stands up, posture straight. “Harlan’s right. If she wanted to kill you, she would have done it. Probably before she even left. But she didn’t.”
“She’s fucking with you. You know how Sinclair loves games,” Harlan says.
My mind begins going through everything I have catalogued about Sinclair and the way her mind works. Everything she does is unpredictable. Yet calculated.
Then it hits me. My head pops up. “The chef.”