Page 116 of Walking Red Flag

I crossed my arms over my chest. “Are we sure this is the last one?”

“There’s no more money to pay the people, so yeah, I’m sure,” Shasha said. “I had Lev clean him out. Donated to a battered women’s shelter anonymously.”

“Good,” I said. “And since I know that Milena is going to ask when she gets down here, what’s the status of the two women?”

“Stable,” Shasha said dispassionately. “Screaming nonsense about being pushed into the line of fire.”

I shrugged. “It was pretty chaotic.”

“Uh-huh,” Shasha muttered. “Sent Artur to check out the hitman’s place. Found Milena’s dossier. Prepaid, too. Lev’s gonna work on gettin’ him cleaned out next.”

“Good,” I said.

My phone rang before I could ask my next question, and I pulled it out and immediately answered it in the next breath.

“Call from…” the robotic voice of the prison that Copper was located filled my ear.

I waited until Copper was on the line and said, “Hey, man. What’s up?”

“I need a ride.”

I froze. “What?”

“A ride,” he said. “I’ve been fuckin’ pardoned.”

My mouth dropped open. “What?”

“The governor of fuckin’ Texas issued a pardon,” he exclaimed. “Come get me.”

Dima: I’m by your house.

Me: Get away from it.

—Text from Milena to Dima

MILENA

I smiled at the man walking through the front door of my coffee shop.

The coffee shop that I changed the hours to shortly after getting home from Montana.

I was no longer opening at the ass crack of dawn like every other coffee shop in the area.

Instead, I opened at ten and stayed open until eight.

I had four very consistent employees, one of which was Simeon.

His brother came in to work when his schedule allowed, and I’d hired two girls that were more than willing to work next to two very hot guys.

I also had six part-time employees that, though not perfect, allowed me to work as little or as much as I wanted.

And I’d finally realized that there was more to life than my coffee shop being open.

If no one showed up, I didn’t open, because there was no way that I was living like that anymore.

Was it the best business practice? No.

But was it working out for me? Yes.

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