Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 92549 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92549 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Veronika found his power, the depth of his depravity, intoxicating at first.
I thought she was batshit crazy.
Now, looking into his eyes, one milky and blind, the other hard and cold, I knew crazy was an understatement.
Seducing a man like him was a whole new level of reckless.
“What do you want with me?” I asked, trying to keep my voice strong, steady. The thing about psychopaths was that you never wanted them to know you were afraid.
Men like him got off on fear. Veronika gave him fear. It was a game for them I would not play.
I refused to give him that satisfaction. Not because it would save my life, but out of sheer stubbornness.
“Your sister took something from my employer. I want it back.”
“You have it. Your men took the money back,” I said. “And you took her life as payment.”
“You are not as pretty as she was,” he said, reaching out and running his thumb down my face. “Veronika was a rare beauty. She was as cold as Russian winters, and as fair as fresh-fallen snow. There was something about her that made a man ache to fuck some heat into her.”
I jerked away from him, pressing my back against the window.
“Do not play dumb with me,” he sneered. “She found out about the hit on the Ivanov family ordered by Solovyov. It was the perfect plan. In fact, your sister helped me perfect it. Her coldness was far more than just skin deep. She wanted her husband dead; she wanted a war that would kill the remaining Ivanovs as well as get rid of Solovyov.”
She helped plan a hit on Kostya?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, wishing he would shut the fuck up.
I may not know anything now, but if he told me, then I knew that my life was entirely forfeit.
The car was creeping through the New York streets and a part of me was still looking for Kostya. Still hoping that he would come out of nowhere, pull me out of this car, and kill the monster that had killed my sister.
Maybe if she was avenged, I could let go of my guilt for coveting her husband.
“I think you lie,” Oleg said. “Veronika told you everything, so she must have told you this. That is why you ran here. You ran to safety.”
I looked past his head out the window as the car sped up. We were getting onto the highway heading out of the city and panic clawed at my throat.
“You’re not as beautiful as Veronika. Tell me, will your cunt squeeze as hard as hers did with a blade to your throat?”
I closed my eyes in fear and disgust as cold dread seeped over me.
Kostya would never be able to find me, not in time.
My death would haunt him, just like my sister’s.
CHAPTER 30
KOSTYA
“Stitch faster,” I demanded, my patience wearing thin.
“Stop moving,” Mikhail shot back, his steady hand piercing my skin with the needle and thread again and again.
Normally I didn’t have a problem sitting still to be patched up.
It was strange, but in most circumstances, I savored these moments. Being forced to sit while someone doctored my wounds gave me an opportunity to plan my retribution.
I ran every contingency in my head, prepared myself for every possible outcome.
Not this time.
This time, sitting here with Mikhail stitching me back together was just wasting time.
With each moment I sat here, doing nothing, Marina was in danger.
She got further from me with every passing second and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.
Through the glass walls, I could see Gregor on his phone, pacing back and forth, threatening the police commissioner to ensure he covered for the shoot-out.
Gregor didn’t want any of this damn attention.
The last thing he needed was a detective, or worse, a journalist, sniffing around asking questions.
If he couldn’t get that shut down, it was going to be my ass on the line.
Damien was a few feet from him, busy bribing the hotel manager to put a cap on absolutely everything else.
The manager would do it, of course, as would the police commissioner.
They really didn’t have a choice in the matter, but still Gregor and Damien offered the bribe as a show of respect. It kept the hostility and complications to a minimum.
They would get this done, and the manager and commissioner would make a fuss about it, but they would be happy enough to take the money. That part was standard operating procedure.
What wasn’t standard was having me sit in the office off of the hotel lobby surrounded by bloody towels, waiting for something, anything, that would give me something to do.
Marina and the dead men who took her never made it to the lobby.
They had just vanished.
Gregor thought maybe they were still in the hotel, but I knew better.