Total pages in book: 42
Estimated words: 38942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 195(@200wpm)___ 156(@250wpm)___ 130(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 38942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 195(@200wpm)___ 156(@250wpm)___ 130(@300wpm)
"Even though we never met?"
I guide her around a corner, keeping to shadows. "He kept you hidden to protect you, not because he didn't care."
She considers this, trying to form a picture of a brother she never knew existed. "Did he... did he watch me? Keep tabs on me?"
"As soon as he learned of your existence, yes."
"But he never reached out. Never introduced himself."
"In our world, distance was the greatest gift he could give you." I check the street before we cross. "Anonymity kept you safe."
"Until now."
"Until now," I agree grimly.
We reach the hotel without incident—a modest establishment that won't attract attention. The room is simple but secure, with sight lines to all approaches and multiple exit routes. I've already had it swept for surveillance and stocked with necessities.
She stands in the middle of the room, looking lost amid the generic furnishings. Her world has been reduced to this—a hotel room with a stranger, the life she built left behind.
"Try to rest," I tell her, moving to check the window locks. "Tomorrow will be challenging."
"Where will you be?"
"Here." I gesture to the chair positioned to view both the door and window. "I'll keep watch."
"You need to sleep too," she points out reasonably.
"I'll manage."
She eyes me skeptically, but doesn't argue. Instead, she disappears into the bathroom, the sound of running water following shortly after. When she emerges in the hotel robe, her face scrubbed clean, she looks younger, more vulnerable.
"I keep thinking I'll wake up and this will all have been some bizarre dream," she says, sitting on the edge of the bed. "That tomorrow I'll open my shop and everything will be normal again."
"It would be nice if that were true. But it's not." And the sooner she gets her head out of the clouds, the easier it would be for me to keep her alive.
"What's going to happen to me?" she asks, meeting my gaze directly. "Really. No platitudes."
"Your life is going to change. Significantly." I give her the truth she's asked for. "Your safety will require sacrifices, compromises, adaptations."
"But I'll survive."
"Yes." This, at least, I can promise. "You'll survive."
She nods slowly, absorbing this. "Because of you."
"Because that's what I promised your brother."
She studies me, her hazel eyes searchingly direct. "Is that the only reason? A promise to a dead man?"
The question catches me off guard. Is it the only reason? The debt I owe Viktor is real, certainly. But something else has taken root alongside it since I entered her shop and watched her work with such careful precision. Since I witnessed her absorb impossible truths with quiet courage.
"Get some sleep, Kleah," I say instead of answering. "Tomorrow comes early."
She accepts the deflection with a small nod, sliding beneath the covers and turning off the bedside lamp. In the darkness, her breathing gradually slows, deepens, as exhaustion overcomes fear.
I remain in the chair, watching over her sleep, contemplating the path ahead of us. The security measures needed, the contingencies to plan, the life she knew dismantled and reassembled into something unrecognizable but survivable.
She shifts in her sleep, her face catching the faint light from the window. In repose, the worry lines smooth from her brow, and I'm struck again by the innocence she carries—not naivety, but a fundamental decency that's become foreign to my world.
Viktor knew what he was asking when he extracted my promise. Knew that placing her under my protection meant dragging her into shadows she'd never chosen to enter. But he also knew there was no alternative if she was to survive once her identity was revealed.
The letter had been clear: Kleah's safety was the priority. She must be kept alive, no matter the means, no matter the cost.
I study her sleeping form, this woman I've sworn to protect with my life if necessary. This woman whose world I've shattered in the name of preserving it.
Tomorrow I'll tell her what that protection truly entails. The arrangement that will bind her to me in ways she cannot yet imagine. The sacrifice of freedom for security, of normalcy for survival.
She doesn't know it, but her world just melted.
Chapter Two
KLEAH
I BARELY SLEEP. HOW could I? Every time I close my eyes, I see Gabriele Bronzetti's face—that perfectly carved jaw, those dark eyes that seemed to see right through me.
You're mine to protect.
The words echo in my mind as dawn breaks, and I catch a glimpse of pastel-colored skies outside our room. I'd spent most of the night researching, first the Biancardi name, then Gabriele himself.
What I learned of my half-brother, I still need to come to terms with. But Gabriele, though? He was like a ghost in the business world. A ghost with billions of dollars to his name. But no photos to go with it. I didn't think that was possible in today's age. But apparently, it is. You just need to have enough money to afford anonymity.