Enduring Envy: The Deadliest Sin Series, #6

By Gwyn McNamee

It's taken a lot to get here.

I've spilled blood—of my friends and my enemies.

Some might say the price to pay was too steep.

But that hasn't stopped me.

The war for the city of Chicago still rages.

It will continue to, until everyone who stands in my way is six feet under.

Because envy endures.

And I will have it all.

No matter the cost.

 

Enduring Envy is the sixth book in The Deadliest Sin series about organized crime in Chicago. This series is best read in order beacuse the stories occur chronologically and each sin builds on the events of the previous one.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gwyn McNamee
• Release date: Dec 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393892731

Gwyn McNamee

Gwyn McNamee is an attorney, writer, wife, and mother (to one human baby and two fur babies). Originally from the Midwest, Gwyn relocated to her husband’s home town of Las Vegas in 2015 and is enjoying her respite from the cold and snow. Gwyn has been writing down her crazy stories and ideas for years and finally decided to share them with the world. She loves to write stories with a bit of suspense and action mingled with romance and heat. When she isn’t either writing or voraciously devouring any books she can get her hands on, Gwyn is busy adding to her tattoo collection, golfing, and stirring up trouble with her perfect mix of sweetness and sarcasm (usually while wearing heels). Gwyn is the author of The Hawke Family series, The Slip Series, The Deadliest Sin Series, The Inland Seas Series, The Supernatural Love Stories in the Absurd (written as her alter-ego, DP Payne), and several stand-alone novels.

Book preview

Enduring Envy

Enduring Envy

The Deadliest Sin Series - Book 6

Gwyn McNamee

ENDURING ENVY

© 2020 Gwyn McNamee

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All rights reserved. Except as permitted by U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior permission of the author.

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, establishments, or organizations, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously to give a sense of authenticity. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Note From The Author

About the Author

OTHER WORKS BY GWYN MCNAMEE

To everyone who has ever endured envy and come out on top.

As iron is eaten by rust, so are the envious consumed by envy.

-Antisthenes

1

Heat blazes around me and licks across my exposed skin. A sharp ringing fills my ears. I shake my head to try to clear it from the fog enveloping me after being thrown against the wall by the explosion. Familiar pain slices through my side, where my body is still desperately trying to recover from the shooting.

I open my eyes and push myself up to take in what used to be my office.

Flames billow through the door and climb up and across the ceiling. A beam hangs down in the middle of the office where Genti had been thrown by the blast.

Shit.

It was some sort of explosion.

The inferno hasn't reached me yet, but there's only one way out of this room—the door the flames surge through. A pretty shitty error in planning if you ask me. Aleksander likely thought it was safest that way—hard to ambush someone when you have to walk right in the door in front of his desk. He never could have anticipated being in a situation like this with no escape.

Smoke fills the air and chokes out the oxygen from the room. I cough and cover my mouth with my arm.

I need to get the fuck out of here.

But how?

It seems like a lost cause from where I crouch next to the back wall. I make my way around the desk, closer to the fire. Genti groans on the floor, the fallen beam lying next to him.

Fuck. It might have hit him.

I drop to my knees and crawl over to him, trying to avoid the smoke billowing in the air closer to the ceiling. Genti. I shake him and roll him onto his back. Wake up.

His eyes flicker open, though they seem lost and unfocused. Blood drips onto the floor from a nasty gash on his temple, but he otherwise looks unharmed.

We need to get out of here. But with the raging inferno mere feet away, coming from the hallway and only exit, I'm not sure how.

I pull Genti into a seated position and slide my arm under his to help him to his feet. You need to get up.

He grunts in response and shakes his head. I drag him up and toward the door, but the heat is so intense, I have to back away as it almost blisters my skin.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Why haven’t the sprinklers kicked on?

I glance up at the ceiling and the ancient fire suppression sprinkler system embedded there. It's probably from the goddamn seventies and doesn't work anyway. But we either sit here and wait for the smoke and flames to overrun us, or we die trying to get out.

I'm not going to sit back and wait for my death to engulf me. It’s not the Syla way. Even trapped at the bottom of that damn pit, I fought. Maybe not physically because there was nowhere to go, but I fought the encroaching darkness. I fought against the Grim Reaper trying to drag me down below. I fucking fought.

And I’m not about to give up now.

I jostled Genti to try to wake him more. You need to walk. I can't carry you out.

He nods his understanding and tries to steady his feet more. I keep my arm around him and cover my mouth with my free arm. He does the same, but flames leap through the door at us.

SHIT!

The conflagration rages higher and thicker across the ceiling, over the old sprinkler system.

Come on, you motherfucker!

Almost as if in answer, cold water rains down on us.

Thank fuck.

Either God heard my plea and decided to forgive my many sins and indiscretions, or we just got damn fucking lucky.

My lungs instantly welcome the minor relief from the smoke, and the flames begin to dissipate slightly in both the office and the hallway. If we wait another minute, we might be able to get out without charring ourselves to a crisp.

Michael? Altin’s voice carries down the hallway toward us.

I open my mouth to respond, but a fit of coughing steals my words.

Altin appears in the doorway, spraying the flames with the industrial fire extinguisher from behind the bar. Let’s get the fuck out of here.

Trying his best to keep the inferno around us at bay, Altin ushers us out into the engulfed hallway.

The heat batters my skin where my clothes don’t cover it, but I keep my head down and help Genti toward the main club—or what’s left of it. What was once the stage now resembles a pile of burning, charred rubble, and the bar to the right side of the room is practically obliterated—only the strong, solid wood main portion is still standing.

Charred bodies lie on the floor, surrounded by partially singed wood and debris.

Jesus Christ. I scan the room and suck in a smoky breath. What happened?

Altin shakes his head as he leads us toward the front entrance. Not sure. The whole place just fucking exploded. The only reason Agon and I survived is we were behind the bar. It absorbed the shock of the explosion.

The familiar blond hair of the waitress I had fucked in my office only a few weeks ago gives me pause, and I looked down at her body, already destroyed by the fire. If I had cared about her at all, even an ounce, I might be feeling something right now other than anger at having to find