Page 25 of The Prizes We Win
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Josephine
“Josephine Elizabeth Jenkins, please tell me you’re fucking joking?”
“Don’t full-name me, Jasper Wesley. And, no. I’m not joking. She needs help. She needs to be safe. And you, Beau, Lawson, and Lincoln can give that to her.”
Once again, the five of us stare at the phone in the middle of the table as we send my baby brother on an emotional roller coaster. Anya still hasn’t come downstairs, so we decided to take this time to call my brother and get him to agree, rather than doing it with her here and making her feel more uncomfortable than she already does when he inevitably becomes a crabass about the entire thing.
“Why don’t you just kill the dad and whatever the hell his name is?”
“Maxim,” I clarify.
“Yeah, him.”
“Because—” Luca starts, but a deep familiar voice on the other end of the line interrupts him.
“They’ll never be able to take out the entire Bratva. Even if they get rid of Andrei and Maxim, the rest will always look for her.”
“Exactly,” Luca agrees. “They are after us because we killed Aleksandr, and now that we’ve taken Anya from them too, their taste for revenge will be nothing compared to what it was. But if we take out Maxim and Andrei, a new leader will rise to the top. One that’s eager to take over, and one that will gladly sweep the fact that we killed them under the rug as long as it means they get to stay in control. But…”
“It’s clear that Anya is nothing more than a tool that will just be passed around to the next one,” Enzo finishes for him.
“I haven’t looked up much about her,” Sebastian says.
“Nor have we asked,” I add.
“But from what I have found, it looks like her family sold her to the Novikovs to pay for some sort of debt they owed. I haven’t dug too deep into what that was, but it doesn’t really seem to matter. As far as the Bratva is concerned, she is their property.”
Everyone is silent for a moment as we let the men on the other end of the line take in everything we just said. I know this is asking a lot, especially considering Lawson and Lincoln’s past, but I genuinely cannot think of a place on this earth where she’d be safer. They’re good men. Honorable men.Protectivemen. I know they won’t say no. I just have to let them get there on their own.
Finally, a sigh fills the room, and I know it’s Jas before he even speaks. “Joe, I really just don’t think—”
“She can come,” Lawson interrupts him again.
“Law, this isn’t a good idea.”
“You know it’s the right thing to do, Jas.”
Silence.
“How soon can you get her here?” Jasper asks reluctantly, and a knowing smirk immediately takes over my face. “Wipe it off, Joe.”
I curl my lips in, and Enzo chuckles next to me.
“I can have her on a flight out of JFK tonight, and she’d land in Billings at nine.”
“Alright,” Lawson answers, “I’ll send Beau to pick her up and bring her straight here.”
“Thank you guys, really. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Joe. Love you,” Lawson answers softly.
“Love you too.” I hear Lawson’s boots walk out of the room without another word. “I love you too, Jas.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Love you too, Joe.”
“Please be nice to her.”
