Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 145729 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145729 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
“Sasha.” She breathed his name, her heart breaking for him.
“I couldn’t save her. I tried, but I couldn’t save my mother, Sonia. I was too young, not strong enough, but I vowed one day I’d take him down. He’s just so good at what he does. Had he known you were leopard, you would have been a prisoner until you gave me a child. As it was, I was careful that couldn’t happen. He might have killed you both, especially if the baby was female.”
“I’m so sorry. I never realized how terrible he was, not until I overheard that conversation and I did a little research. I’d been so sheltered, I’d never even heard gossip. I was picking up the language, though, and things weren’t adding up.”
“I asked you to marry me in order to keep you close. Had I sent you away to school, which I considered first, he had already indicated he would have had you killed as an example. Your father’s debt, he said, would never be fully paid. I couldn’t actually marry you because then he would demand your death, but when I told him I made the same deal with you that he had with your mother, he left you alone – for a while.”
He sighed and pushed a hand through his hair. “I was in a difficult position. You’re so young. You were innocent. I had no right touching you. It didn’t feel right, Sonia, and I tried to keep my distance. I stayed away as much as possible, while still keeping you safe. I went clubbing with Dmitri. I was seen around town. I threw myself into the business. I kept you home and away from him. When you wanted to have sex, as any normal wife would, I obliged, but I knew it was wrong for you.”
“I love you, Sasha. I always have,” she admitted quietly, “but I didn’t love you the way a woman should love her man. It’s different.” She had to tell him the truth. She knew the difference now.
He nodded his head. “I’m well aware of that. I love you too, but not the way a man loves a woman. You were like a little sister to me and touching you that way felt wrong. Still, you deserved to be happy, and without your knowledge you were almost kept a prisoner in that house.”
“Thank you for trying to keep me safe.”
“I did my best to grow strong, to recruit my own men, men loyal to me. I had to be extremely careful because if even one of them betrayed us, if there was a whisper of conspiracy against Nikita, he would have tortured everyone until someone talked. If he thought, for a moment, I was behind it, you would have been tortured in front of me. I apparently gave myself away by being too protective of you.”
“You were always protective of me, even when I was very little.”
He nodded. “But just before he talked to me, do you remember the accident you had? The one where a car nearly hit you? You were coming out of your yoga class and crossing the street to get to the car where your driver waited.”
She nodded. It had been close. Very, very close. It had been Dmitri who had saved her that day, throwing her out of the path of the speeding car. They both rolled on the asphalt, scraping skin, but other than a few bruises, they were both fine.
She’d been surprised that Dmitri had been in the vicinity, but hadn’t questioned it because she’d been so shaken by the near miss. Dmitri had acted angry. Her driver had scowled at him and they’d had a very heated exchange. That hadn’t been anything compared to what Sasha had said to the driver. He’d pulled out a gun and put it to her driver’s head and ordered her out of the room. She didn’t know what had happened after that.
“He worked for your father, and he set me up by parking across the street,” she guessed.
Sasha nodded, his eyes burning with anger. “Yes. Then he texted the hit man and he was supposed to make it look like an accident.”
“Why? If you father had decided to kill me, why didn’t he just do it?”
“He wanted me to do it, and when I made it clear I wasn’t done with you yet, he gave the job to two of his men. I made the mistake of killing them both and threatening him.”
She opened her mouth to say something, but the reality of his life hit her. The reality of Joshua’s life was the same. They killed people. It was part of their world. Deliberately, she took another sip of water, taking her time to try to process everything he said. It fit. The way he’d treated her from the beginning of their marriage. She’d been so shocked by her mother’s death and his marriage proposal that she’d gone numb and just let Sasha take over. She hadn’t really woken up for months after. He hadn’t touched her, saying she wasn’t ready yet.