Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 93506 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 468(@200wpm)___ 374(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93506 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 468(@200wpm)___ 374(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
“She didn’t tell me anything, but I could see the heartbreak in her eyes. If you’d shot her in the chest, she wouldn’t have looked like that.”
My jaw tightens. “Do you know where she went?”
“No, and even if I knew, I wouldn’t tell you. I said it before, and I will say it again. You’re a cunning fox and an unfeeling monster who doesn’t, under any circumstances, deserve someone as pure as Sasha. The only decent thing you can do in this situation is to let her go.”
Not in this lifetime.
I leave Rai outside and return to the party, ignoring her curses. She’s obnoxious on most days, but she’s especially irritating today.
My expression is welcoming as I step back into the engagement parade.
Anyone who’s watching from the outside would think I’m ecstatic about this. We even take pictures for the press and everything in between.
Deep down, however, it’s a raging volcano, and it’s all because of one damn girl.
By the time the evening is over, I’m ready to turn the earth upside down to find her because Viktor and even Yuri and Maksim couldn’t locate the little shit.
Before I do that, however, I have to take part in a private meeting with both Igor and Sergei and an extremely displeased Vladimir.
From what I know, he doesn’t want the position either, but at the same time, he doesn’t want me to have it.
But since he agrees with the Pakhan on almost anything, I don’t imagine he’ll give me any trouble. If he does, I’ll deal with it accordingly.
After we’re done, I leave and take a rain check on a drink Igor invites me to.
Since Viktor confirmed Sasha isn’t on the premises, we go immediately to the house.
Apparently, she’s not with Karina as I expected her to be.
Where else could she have gone? Sasha’s world has always revolved around the mansion and my protection. She has no friends, relationships, or places she can turn to outside the house.
Naturally, her phone is turned off, so I can’t track her through that.
Fucking fuck.
My men spend a whole hour flipping the mansion and the guards’ quarters upside down, but they find no trace of her.
Viktor calls off the search after they do it twice because, according to his words, “It’s a wasted effort.”
I’m really in the mood to waste his life now.
But he’s right. If I keep insisting on overworking my men, this might backfire and not necessarily against me. They might take this out on her when she comes back.
And she will come back.
I step into my room for a change of clothes. I’ll take a run around the mansion’s premises just in case they missed a spot.
That fucking irritating woman better be safe, or I swear to fucking fuck—
My thoughts halt when I walk into my closet. The automatic lights go on, and the stench of alcohol hits me in the face.
Sasha sits on the floor, her jacket thrown to the side and a bottle of vodka nestled between her hands.
Tears streak down her cheeks, and her eyes are too brown, too lost, as if they murdered all the green and are currently mourning it.
Relief washes over me. Here I thought she was doing something stupid somewhere I couldn’t find her, but she’s been in here.
In hindsight, I should’ve checked my room, but I didn’t think she’d be here, of all places.
I stand in front of her, and she slowly looks up at me with wrenched eyes.
“You done dropping your fiancée off at home?” A slur interlinks with her words.
Sasha never, and I mean never gets drunk. Not even during her off days. When everyone else gets hammered, she’s more concerned about driving back here safely or making sure none of them commits a mistake they’ll regret.
So to see her like this is…strange, to say the least.
She always called me an emotionless vault, but she’s closed off herself. Even though she’s warm and friendly with the guards, she has this reserved quality that’s fairly hard to read.
“I didn’t.” I speak as calmly as I can muster. “As a matter of fact, she went back with her family.”
She laughs, the sound loud and unhinged before it ends in a hiccup, and she chokes on a tear. “You’re not even going to offer any excuses?”
“There are no excuses to offer.” I crouch in front of her. “Kristina is nothing but a business transaction. She’s only a step I’m using to reach the top, and she knows it.”
“And…you think that’s okay? You think that makes it any better?”
“Don’t be irrational, Sasha. You know that my goal has always been the sky, and this is a perfect method to accomplish that.”
“Irrational…yeah. I guess I am, right? I’m irrational for thinking about you with her, for seeing you holding her hand in public and putting a ring on her finger. You’re going to marry her, too. You will also have to put a baby in her to make sure this thing works out, no? It’ll be like a fairy tale.”