Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 48709 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 244(@200wpm)___ 195(@250wpm)___ 162(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 48709 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 244(@200wpm)___ 195(@250wpm)___ 162(@300wpm)
Maybe I’m going crazy.
If I am, I don’t want to be sane.
I take her hands in mine, savoring their feel, the warmth. She makes another adorable gasping noise as she squeezes onto me tighter, curling her fingers around mine.
She’s squeezing on. Hard. Like she doesn’t want to let go.
My heart thunders through me as I lean down, bruising my lips with hers.
A sudden thudding comes at the door.
The moment shatters.
I spin, my hand going instinctively to my hip. But then I remember I left my gun in the safe on the way in. There’s no need when I’ve got ten dedicated security members patrolling the grounds at all times.
“Yes?” I ask.
“It’s me,” Max says. “I’m sorry. It’s important.”
“What?” I growl, unable to believe anything could be more important than this.
“Damien, are you alone? It’s Bratva business.”
“Tell me, Max,” I snap.
She can hear anything I can, I almost add, but hold it back.
He wouldn’t understand. Nobody would.
“It’s Gabriel,” Max says. “He’s made his move. One of our men is in the hospital.”
CHAPTER
TWELVE
Liliana
The kiss still feels so close, even as the car hurtles down the road, cutting through the darkness.
Damien sits on the other side of the car, the wide cushions between us making him feel far too distant.
I remember his hands on my shoulders, the word beautiful ricocheting brightly around my memory. A complete sense of disbelief grabbed me like a giant invisible fist screaming got ya. This was it, the moment.
Then the knock, then after.
Damien left the room to speak with Max, then rushed in a few minutes later. His face was completely changed as if all the color had drained out of it.
He stared at me bleakly.
“I’m sorry, Liliana. It’s your uncle.”
I shudder at the memory, hugging my arms tighter around myself.
“Are you cold?” Damien asks.
I turn to find him looking at me, his eyes glimmering the same way they did before he almost kissed me. I can’t stop thinking of that, even as other parts of my mind are consumed with what’s happening to Nick.
“I’m okay,” I tell him.
A frown touches his powerful features. “Okay.”
A pause lengthens between us. I wonder if I’m imagining the way his hand moves, making me think he might want to reach over and place it atop mine.
But surely thinking it’s all imagination isn’t right, can’t be right. We were so close less than thirty minutes ago.
Finally, he does it. Reaches over and takes my hand.
The warmth explodes across my palm, tickling all up my arm, infusing my body, my beating heart. I squeeze on tighter, letting out a gasp as I meet his eye. He stares at me with carnal intent, as though his lust is filling him with possessive fury.
Like he wants me to be his as badly as I do.
“It’s going to be alright,” he says.
“You can’t know that.”
“I can,” he says firmly.
“How?”
“I got a text a few minutes ago specifically detailing what happened. Max didn’t have all the details before.”
I look down at our clasped hands, still struggling to believe it’s real. We’re holding each other like this. He presses with even more firmness, telling me he’s never going to let go.
“Tell me,” I whisper.
“Your uncle was trying to gather intel at a Cartel warehouse. He had a friend there, somebody from his old life…or that’s what he thought, anyway. The Cartel man apparently set him up and ambushed him. They put a beating on him and left him outside the hospital. It wasn’t a hit. It was a message.”
I swallow as a cry escapes me. Thinking of Uncle Nick like that makes me want to jump from the car and run to him, the only guardian I’ve known for the past half-decade.
And yet there’s nothing I can do but sit here and wait.
“How do you know all this?” I ask.
“From Nick. He’s awake. He won’t need long-term care. He’s got cuts, bruises, a couple of broken bones….”
“A couple of broken bones,” I repeat bitterly. “You say that like it’s nothing.”
“In this life, Liliana, it is nothing. It could’ve been a lot worse.”
“So what? That makes it okay?”
He holds my hand even harder. “No, it doesn’t. Not even close. In a decent world, I’d beat that bastard to death for what he did. First, for the way Gabriel spoke to you….”
“Did that really annoy you?” I ask, using the tamest language I can.
I need to know if I was right in my assessment when I thought he was swelling with rage, need, and possession.
“He had no right,” Damien growls. “He’s lucky I didn’t make him pay right then. He deserved it.”
Our eyes meet again. I always feel so seen when he stares at me like that. It’s a unique feeling like I’m spotlighted.
“What’s happening here?” I whisper. “I didn’t imagine anything back there, did I?”
“No, you didn’t,” he says, his voice taut.