Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 68102 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68102 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
And once he did, he planned on damn well keeping her.
4
“Sofia.”
She closed her eyes momentarily as the voice she dreaded hearing came from behind her.
“Look at me.”
She couldn’t. She was frozen in fear.
Unable to move.
That voice had ice forming around her. Until she was trapped.
Terrified.
Then she felt him move closer. But it did nothing to melt the ice. The stench of his breath hit her nose as he slid his mouth close to her ear.
She shuddered in revulsion.
Please don’t let him touch her.
He’d caught her in her office at Solynshko. She’d been about to head home. Exhaustion was making everything fuzzy and her back was killing her.
She had to get out of here. The last thing she needed was for Sacha to catch her here. She didn’t need another lecture. It had been three days since he’d caught her and Colm in the storeroom.
Wow. That sounded like they’d been doing something wrong, which they hadn’t.
He’d just been helping her. Like he always did.
Because he was her friend.
That’s all they were. It was all they ever could be.
Friends.
Sofia wasn’t supposed to work tonight, but she’d come in because they were short-staffed. A nasty bug was going around, so she’d helped out behind the bar. And she hadn’t had a chance to sit down all night so her back was on fire, the pain agonizing.
And where had Oleg been?
Not here, anyway.
“Where you going?” he asked in his broken English.
“I’m going home,” she said, hating that she answered him.
It’s not like you have any choice.
“And the cash in your hand? What it for?”
“It’s for Bea and Miller,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Miller. I cannot believe you hire that slut.”
“She’s not a slut!” But she knew that nothing she said would change his opinion.
Miller was someone that Sofia would love to be friends with . . . in another life where she was free to have friends.
“Why you give them money? Is payroll system not working?”
Like he’d know anything about the payroll system. He played a good game at pretending to work when she actually did it all.
“It’s working fine. This is a bonus for their hard work.”
The other women had worked their butts off tonight. They deserved it. Miller had only been working here for three days, but she liked the other woman a lot.
And you really like that Colm is here every shift with her.
Yeah, she liked that most of all.
“They doing their jobs,” Oleg spat out. “They don’t need reward for doing what paid to do.”
For fuck’s sake.
He was such an asshole.
He spun her around. Sharp pain slashed her spine. God, that hurt. She was so busy breathing through the pain and trying to keep it hidden from him that she failed to notice him plucking the cash from her hand.
“I just take this.”
Her eyes watered and she had to blink a few times before she glanced up to find him stashing the cash in his back pocket.
“What are you doing?” she asked. “That’s not yours.”
“It is now.” He smiled.
In another life, when he was a better person, he might have been considered handsome.
To her, he just looked disgusting.
Rotten.
Nasty.
Ugly. So very ugly.
“Call it payment for putting up with Anisimov moaning at me all week about you doing my work while I went to doctor appointment.”
Fuck.
She wished she’d been able to think of a better excuse for his absence when Sacha caught Colm helping her in the back room.
Oleg hadn’t been happy with her after Sacha dragged him into his office to ‘talk’ to him.
Sacha was protective of her. Unfortunately, he couldn’t protect her from Oleg.
He was her burden to bear. Her punishment.
“Apparently, I am slacking off. And need to ‘man up’ and take care of you better. So, this is me taking care of you better, Sofia.”
“What? By taking the money meant for my staff?”
“Tut-tut Sofia. Our staff.” He moved closer to her.
God. Why couldn’t he brush his teeth? The stench of his breath turned her stomach.
Garlic and onions.
It was getting so bad that she was now starting to gag when she smelled them cooking.
“Have you heard of a breath mint?” she spat out before she could stop herself.
“You heard of self-preservation?” he snarled back. “Respecting your betters?”
“What betters?” she snapped back.
Oh God.
What was she doing?
You. Idiot.
He grabbed her hair and shoved her head back. Tears sprung unbidden, and she had to fight hard not to let them drip down her cheeks.
Don’t show him your pain.
Oleg was a leech who fed on pain and fear rather than blood.
But it was so hard; the pressure on her back was almost too much to take. Her breathing became shallow, gasping pants.
“Let. Me. Go.”
“No.” He deliberately seemed to breathe right over her face.
She gagged.
God. That was so bad.
“I am your better, Sofia,” he told her in a low voice. “And you do well not to forget that. I am your superior in every way. You just a stupid, useless slut. Aren’t you, Kukolka? Now, you gonna get down on your knees and apologize for disrespect and lies to your cousin. You know, I near fucking vomited when he started going on how wonderful you are. Are you, Sofia? We both know that not true, don’t we?”