Page 34 of Always Salty

And I certainly didn’t know what more to say.

“Yes and no,” he looked away and focused on my brothers, allowing me to draw a full breath.

“What’s going on?” All three of them turned to survey Shasha.

And, showing the type of man he was, Shasha didn’t flinch when he saw he had all three’s attentions.

Nor did he back off or flinch as I’d seen so many other men do.

“Have you watched the news at all today?” he asked.

The four of us shook our heads.

“Allow me.” He gestured to the TV. “Pick a station.”

Cutter grabbed the closest remote, which happened to be the one that controlled the television in the kitchen—why I had one in the kitchen, I didn’t know. But my brothers spent a lot of time here, and they’d been the ones to install it, even though the living room wasn’t too far away, and would’ve worked just as well.

He flipped the television to a news station and froze.

“…Police and FBI are investigating the assassination. Alexander Pettigrew was a former aide for one of the top real estate companies in the country. He went to prison for raping a nineteen-year-old…”

Cutter muted the TV and turned to me.

I stood there, mouth open in surprise, and stared at the screen as the newscaster continued to talk.

I read the subtitles, and figured out that early this morning, when Alexander Pettigrew had been let out in the “yard” to get some free time, he’d been shot by a sniper.

One shot, one kill.

The guy had been dead in seconds.

Plus, from what the newscasters said, his head had exploded on impact and sprayed in a six-foot arc all around him.

The smile that grew on my face was nothing short of euphoric.

“Well, hot damn,” I breathed. “There are miracles.”

I pulled my gaze away from the TV and studied the men who remained quiet.

“What?” I asked.

“This feels too good to be true,” Copper said. “Why now? Are they trying to implicate me for the shooting?”

“Why would you think that?” I asked.

“Because we had a beef in that prison. And all of a sudden I’m out and oh, whoops. He gets shot?” Copper shook his head. “This isn’t good.”

“About that…” Shasha turned to me.

“What?” I asked.

“Do you know my brother, Dima, at all?” he asked. “I know that y’all weren’t there at the same time as each other when we all met as Cutter and Milena were set to be married last month, but…”

I was already shaking my head. “I can’t say that I do.”

“Hmm,” he said.

“Why do you ask?” I wondered.

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