Total pages in book: 35
Estimated words: 33162 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 166(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33162 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 166(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
“Simple, it’s a front for a nightclub.” He wouldn’t take her to any places that put her at risk.
The Bratva wouldn’t harm her. She would never know what was going on in that side of his life. He kept the two very much separate.
Chloe folded her arms, stepped away from the window, and turned to look at him, then glanced away.
He missed how close she would get to him. Their wedding day had spoiled some of the little parts he loved. She never randomly touched him anymore.
In the year he’d known her, she was never one to just walk around with her arms folded beneath her breasts. She was expressive and passionate. Chloe loved with her whole being, but in the past week, he saw someone he didn’t even recognize and he hated that feeling. There was nothing he could do.
Even though he knew on their wedding day the truth would come out, he had hoped to distract her enough to ignore what was going on around her. Chloe wasn’t easily distracted.
“How…” She stopped and shook her head.
He watched her, knowing she had a lot of questions. He couldn’t answer them, if he didn’t know what they were.
“Talk to me, Chloe.”
“You make it sound so simple.”
“Because it is simple.”
“No.” She threw her hands up in the air. “Simple is thinking of you as a small-time businessman. A random guy who entered a bar one day and happened to like me.” She stopped once again but this time she laughed. “Only it wasn’t a random meeting. You knew exactly who I was and you knew what your intentions were.”
He had no intention of marrying her. Fucking her, yes, but not marrying her. In fact, the moment he met her, all his plans had gone up in smoke. Roman didn’t have a clue what to do with her. She had taken him completely and utterly by surprise.
Now, he didn’t know what to think. He didn’t want to kill her. He also knew he couldn’t let her go.
“How we met is irrelevant.”
“No, it’s not. I fell in love with a lie. You’re not real. You’re not Roman Smith, small businessman, who is looking for a woman to spend the rest of his life with. You’re Roman Sidorov, a member of the Zaitsev Bratva. The people partly responsible for killing my family.” She pressed her lips together. “It was all a lie. If I had lied to you about who I was, wouldn’t you be hurt?”
Roman refused to answer that.
Chloe didn’t lie. She hadn’t lied about anything. She had even opened up to him about what she had been doing at the bar. In the beginning she hadn’t realized it had been owned by the Zaitsev Bratva, or that it was a personal hangout for them. It was after she realized that, she set her plans in motion. He believed that.
“You’re not going to answer that.”
“My father was a member of the Zaitsev Bratva. It was a much smaller organization when I was a young boy. I knew then that I was going to serve in the Bratva myself. I intended to rise up the ranks, become a soldier, earn the respect and loyalty of those around me.” He got to his feet, rounded his desk, and leaned against it. “My father taught me well. He taught me to have rules, to have ethics within myself. If I followed my code, then those around me would see the value in that.”
“You don’t have any parents.”
“My father died at the hands of my mother.”
“What? How is that even possible?”
Roman chuckled. It had been a shock to many. His father had been a respected man within the Bratva. Men and women were loyal to him. His death had shocked the men who followed him. His mother had poisoned him, weakened him, and then shot him through the head, before taking her own life. He’d been the one to find their bodies.
“You found them?” Chloe asked.
“Yes, I had been away on business and when I came home, the scent of rotting flesh had already taken over.”
“What about their soldiers or staff?”
“They’d been sent away, told not to return until further notice.”
“Why did she kill him?” Chloe asked.
“She believed he was having an affair with a younger woman.”
“Was he?”
Roman chuckled. “No. He wasn’t. My father was many things but he loved my mother. At least, they did love each other in the beginning, or so he said. It’s rare for men not to take mistresses, but it does happen.”
“Mistresses?”
“Yes.”
Chloe looked down at the ground and he was just waiting for her to ask the question. He kept waiting, but so far she didn’t say a word. He didn’t know if he was disappointed.
“Will you be taking a mistress?” she asked, suddenly lifting her head.
Roman noticed her hands were clenched into fists and he rather liked seeing the fire in her eyes.