Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 108119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 541(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 541(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
Her dark hair spilled over her shoulders.
I wanted to twist it around my fingers, tug her close, kiss that swollen mouth.
“Is there a wrong answer to that question?” I wondered out loud. “I need your hands.”
“I was kidding.” She held out her hands in front of her body palm down. “The whole me being chained to the bed…”
“Uh-huh,” I slid the zip tie around her wrist and jerked it toward the headboard, pulling it tight against the post so she couldn’t move. I kept her left hand free.
“Legs,” I barked.
“Wh-what?”
“Pull them straight.”
“Andrei?”
“Do it,” I snapped.
She quickly straightened her legs. I wrapped the rope around her knees and kept wrapping tight until I got to her ankles, I made a figure eight and knotted it, then stepped away.
“Andrei?” She said my name again, her voice shaking.
“Elena has been taken care of.” I tried to sound bored, but she looked so innocent, so crushed.
I looked away and shoved my hands in my jean pockets. “She was very… helpful in her information about your family.”
Alice paled. “Do I want to know?”
“Maybe you already do?” I suggested. “How would I know? Maybe you were sent here for a reason? Seduction, perhaps?”
“Seduction?” she repeated, her eyes wild. “Are you hearing yourself? My brother touched me, touched me!” Her eyes filled with tears. “I have next to zero sexual experience, and the only time I’ve ever found pleasure in it was an hour ago and now I’m tied to a bed!”
I flinched as she jerked her hand against the headboard. “There is another possibility…”
“What?” I’d never seen a woman look so pissed, alive.
I loved it more than I should.
“You’re working with him,” I suggested, circling the bed and finally sitting on the opposite side. “He’s your partner? He wants the club, you know, the money that comes from selling girls. Fact, in one day this club makes more than three million dollars in sales and prostitution, that’s not including drugs or private parties. And he’s just desperate enough to think he can take that from me.”
She shook her head and looked away. “I would never help him do that. I would never be on board with him owning anything as evil as this.” She clenched her teeth and stared at me when she said it.
“A few hours ago you were screaming my name, and now I’m evil?” My grin was cruel. “Which is it? Heaven or hell? You can’t let me give you heaven then damn me to hell in the same breath, Alice, that’s not how this works.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out my knife, flicking it open. “I need to know that you’re telling me the truth.”
“What possible reason could I have for lying?”
“Money. Greed. Power.” I shrugged. “To name a few.”
“Fine.” Her lower lip trembled. “If that’s what you really think. That I would live up to the De Lange name, kill me, turn me over to the Italians.” Tears filled her eyes. “It’s not fair.” A tear slid down her cheek. “To give me hope like you did, and then rip it away.” She choked on a sob. “I will never forgive you for this, Andrei. Never.”
I sucked in a breath. “Put yourself in my position.”
Her eyes darted away.
“What would you do?”
She licked her lower lip and hung her head. “I don’t know.”
“Yeah, you do.”
Her head snapped up. “Fine! I would torture them for information. I would make sure the people I loved were safe, and I would do everything in my power to keep it that way, even if that meant I had to kill. I would do whatever it took and never look back!”
I crawled up the bed and straddled her body.
And then I held the knife to her throat. “Are you working for your brother?”
“No.” She sobbed, her neck straining. “I’m not.”
“Were you sent here to get information?”
“No.” Tears slid down her chin onto the blade of my knife.
“Were you sent here to seduce me?”
Her eyes searched mine. “No.”
I wanted to believe her.
My past told me she was lying.
All women were liars.
All of them.
Don’t trust them.
They use their bodies.
My chest heaved as I stared her down.
She didn’t look away.
Her eyes were bright with tears. My hand shook as I pressed the blade against her soft skin.
Our foreheads touched, our mouths inches apart, as I sliced the plastic binding her wrists.
I grabbed the tip of the knife and then twisted it so that the hilt was pointed toward Alice. “Take it.”
“What?” Her chest heaved. “What do you mean take it?”
“It’s yours.” I searched her eyes, measuring, weighing her reaction. “It would take seconds for me to bleed out,” I pointed to my neck. “Or you could just stab my leg and pray you hit the femoral artery.”
“You’re insane,” she hissed.
“Why yes, I am,” I agreed. “You could probably get through the club without anyone asking questions. Hell, you could probably take my SUV and meet up with your family without being stopped. Because I claimed you. Because no matter what I say, I can’t stop thinking about you, wanting you. Because I’m the insane man, who would still want that, even if you stabbed me in the neck right now. That’s how insane I am. That’s how crazy I am. That with my last few breaths I would think to myself… fucking worth it.”