Defending Pride: The Deadliest Sin Series, #11

By Gwyn McNamee

Fighting for my life isn't anything new.
It feels like I've been dodging bullets for as long as I've been breathing.
Sometimes, they strike.
While I'm no stranger to blood and pain, things have gone too far now.
Choices have been made.
Lines have been crossed and new ones drawn
Ones no one could have anticipated.
Love was never meant to be part of the equation.
But now, it isn't just me and my own pride I need to defend.
We all have targets on our backs.
And with friends becoming enemies…
There isn't anyone left to trust in this city.
Soon, Chicago will burn.
I just hope I can survive the inferno.

***Defending Pride is the eleventh book in The Deadliest Sin Series about organized crime in Chicago. This series is best read in order, as the stories are chronological and each sin builds on the events of the previous one.***

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gwyn McNamee
• Release date: Jul 29, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201319168

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

Defending Pride

Defending Pride

The Deadliest Sin Series - Book 11

Gwyn McNamee

DEFENDING PRIDE

© 2021 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

About the Author

OTHER WORKS BY GWYN MCNAMEE

To everyone who has ever had to suck up their pride to protect someone they love.

Pride is a spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense.

-C.S. LEWIS

1

KAT

You have got to be kidding me.

The tension in my body that’s been building since the moment Rose revealed to me the truth about Felipe doubles the instant the plane door opens and I see who stands outside.

I barely escape Chicago alive, then fly halfway across the world as covertly as possible with our transponder turned off to avoid anyone being able to easily track us. Then I call in some favors from my friends here in Albania to let me land without any problems—since I’m essentially trying to sneak into the country—and I find these two assholes waiting for me on the fucking tarmac.

One of the reasons we chose this airport was its remoteness. Less likely someone would see a private jet of this size landing and get curious. Easy to slip away and get Jet without anyone even knowing I’m here. But all my attempts to keep my visit under the radar appear to have failed.

Miserably.

The cool evening wind whips up the stairs of the plane and swirls around me, but Kreshnik Dragusha and Afrim Berisha appear unaffected by the shitty weather that’s greeted my landing. They stand stock-still, hands at their sides, hard gazes never leaving me, looking almost exactly like they did the first time I saw them when I was here over a year ago.

Only then, I was observing them from the shadows, sneaking around to get Aleksander buried and give birth to Jet so I could get him somewhere safe before I returned to the States to take down Michael. Now, I’m their reluctant business partner, forced to cut them in on my brothel business in order to continue to permit Esad to use the docks in Vlorë. And I didn’t tell them I was coming.

Shit.

Martin—one of Rose’s men and the only one who managed to get onto the plane with me before I had to shut the door—stops behind me and leans in. Should I shoot them?

I clench my hand around my purse and angle my head toward him slightly to ensure he can hear me over the wind and the engines winding down. Not until I see what they want.

Especially because there's no way they'd come here alone. Even if I can't see anyone else, there are undoubtedly men set up around the airport, some probably with sniper rifles or worse, waiting for a signal from them or for me to start a problem so they can end it…and me.

The last thing I need is for Rose’s guy to have an itchy trigger finger and start an all-out gunfight we’ll undoubtedly lose. But hopefully, he got my message on that loud and clear.

I plaster a fake smile on my face and slowly descend the stairs from the plane. The engines continue to wind down as I approach my business partners. They return my smile, though it doesn’t reach the eyes of either man.

Kreshnik Dragusha, one of the most powerful men in the country—and one of the most ruthless—inclines his head toward me. It's nice to see you in person.

I raise an eyebrow at him. To what do I owe this warm reception?

Both men chuckle and exchange a knowing look.

Afrim Berisha—Kreshnik’s partner in crime who controls the other half of the country—shrugs slightly. Imagine our surprise when we heard through the grapevine that you were coming to the motherland without notifying us. It made us feel quite neglected, almost as if you didn't want us to know you were here.

The way he says the final words sends a chill through my blood. This looks more than bad. It could be viewed as not only a slight on them but potentially a move against them, like I’m coming here under the cloak of secrecy to secure some backing to take over on this side of the world, even though that’s the furthest thing from my mind.

Is there a reason for that, Kat? You coming to our territory without telling us?

They need an answer that will satisfy them, one that removes any question about my intentions toward them. There’s only one I can think of.

I lock gazes with each of them, holding myself as still and steady as possible. I came to see Aleksander.

Both men stiffen slightly and glance at each other, likely wondering if I’ve completely lost my mind and forgotten he’s dead.

To visit his grave. We are nearing the anniversary of his death, and I thought it only fitting.

The lie comes out easily because it's mostly true. If none of the drama were happening in Chicago, if I hadn’t just boldly attacked two of my strongest competitors, and if I didn’t have the threat of Felipe breathing down my neck, too, I might have come to Albania to talk to Aleksander. To tell him about Jet and about Rose, even confess what a mess I’ve made of everything and hope that by pressing my hand against the grass over his cremated remains that I might garner some sort of insight from the man who was so terrifyingly good at his job, so much better than me. It seems like all I’ve done since arriving back in Chicago as Kat is complicate things