Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 100416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 502(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 502(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
She suspected it was even the truth.
She was safe in her room. He wouldn’t bash in, shoot everyone, and take her. It wasn’t Dmitri’s style, no matter what anyone thought of him. But if she didn’t go with him now, the O’Malleys and Romanovs would go to war. Nothing would be able to prevent it.
Nothing but her.
Have to play this right. “If I come with you now”—her voice hitched, but she pushed on—“promise me there will be peace. Give me your word.”
He barely hesitated. “I give my word that I will do nothing further to antagonize your brother and the situation.”
She’d been around too many power plays in her life not to know hedging when she heard it. “But if he comes after me, you’ll finish what he started. No. I’m not signing Aiden’s death warrant.”
He cursed in Russian. “I will do everything in my power to broker peace if you come with me right this moment. The clock is ticking, Keira.”
He’d keep his word. Dmitri might be borderline evil with a dose of psychopath, but he had his own code of honor. That promise was as good as she was going to get. If she said no now, she might very well be sentencing her family to war. Maybe they could win, but not without casualties. I can’t bury another sibling. “Give me two minutes.”
“Be quick.”
Keira hung up and grabbed a bag. She kept an overnight one packed for emergencies. She paused and looked around her room. There wasn’t a single damn thing that she couldn’t live without. The jewelry her mother gave her hadn’t been touched in well over two years. Her books lay unread. She finally snatched a picture of her and her siblings from the dresser and shoved it into the pack, followed by her bag of perfectly rolled joints and two bottles of vodka. Dmitri was Russian—he no doubt owned stock in vodka—but she’d rather have her own stash close at hand.
And then there was nothing else holding her to this place. She shoved the window open and climbed out. It was a route she’d taken more times than she could count, no matter how often her brother threatened to install bars to hold her in. She swung out of the window and climbed down the tree to the ground.
A bitter wind kicked her hair into her face and made her wish she’d thought to bring a sweatshirt, but it was too late to worry about it now. Keira shrugged her bag over her shoulder and started down the street toward the black town car and the man who stood next to it as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
As if he wasn’t in the very heart of enemy territory, stealing her out from under her family’s nose.
Dmitri Romanov was striking in the way of fallen angels, his face a little too rough for perfection, his mouth a little too calculating and made for spilling lies, his gray eyes a little too icy to be anything other than exactly what he was—a cold-blooded killer who manipulated people to suit his purposes.
Against her better judgment, she picked up her pace, drawn to him despite everything that had happened between them—and everything that hadn’t.
“Stop.”
Dmitri moved. One second he was several feet away, and the next he pulled Keira to him—behind him. She blinked and peered around his shoulder to find her middle brother standing on the sidewalk, a gun in his hand.
A gun pointed at Dmitri.
“Put the gun down, Cillian.” Dmitri spoke softly, his hands out to his sides.
Shielding me.
More like protecting his investment.
“I don’t care if you helped Aiden and Charlie, you are not taking my sister anywhere.”
Keira bit down angry words. Right now, the only thing that mattered was defusing the situation. Her brother wanted to protect her—she got that—but he was putting everyone they cared about in danger with this bullshit. She opened her mouth, but Dmitri spoke before she had a chance.
“You owe me a favor, Cillian O’Malley.”
“The fuck I do.”
“Break your word and our deal is null and void.”
Oh God. If Cillian did that, it would be even worse than shooting Dmitri right then and there. Keira stepped around Dmitri and put her hand on his chest. “Cillian, please. Just let me go. I’m choosing this. I’ll be okay. I promise.” Soft and easy. Lie with your words and tone and body.
Cillian relaxed. The gun inched lower, finally aiming safely at the concrete at her brother’s feet. “Aiden is going to come after you, Keira. You know that.”
He couldn’t come after her, because if he did, Dmitri would have the ammunition he needed to attack. She leaned forward, her voice low and fierce. “He promised to respect my choice.” She had to get her message across or this would all be for nothing.