Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 98755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 494(@200wpm)___ 395(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 494(@200wpm)___ 395(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
I then look at Hope and exhale. “I knew it was you. I knew from the moment I found you in that park and started following you.” I can’t help but grin as I think back to the night I met her again, drunk in the park, with a lack of stamina that’s misleading as to how much she can provide in the bedroom. “You are the perfect killer, really. But you became sloppy.”
“So why did you continue to see me?” she asks.
“Because despite everything, when I looked at you, I didn’t feel like I was lost in this world. I was intrigued by how your mind worked and how far I might be able to push you.” A soft smile touches her lips, and it’s precisely for that that I was willing to give everything up for her. “Did you really think I would let someone take you away from me?”
“Fucking hell,” Anya mutters. “Now we have a detective in our family.”
“I’m everything you’re against,” Hope reminds me as if she’s giving me an out. As if she wants me to push her away. But she’s stuck with me.
I can’t help but laugh. Hope Ivanov is everything I’m against? It couldn’t be further from the truth.
“No, you aren’t. You’re the brilliant mind that will captivate me until the end. You and I aren’t that different, Shortcake. We do what we have to for self-preservation.”
“I kill people.” She finally confesses it to me for the first time. “And I enjoy it,” she adds with a half-smile.
Beautiful.
Lethal.
Unhinged.
She couldn’t be more perfect.
“Yeah, you need better training,” Anya says, rolling her eyes.
Her father is watching me carefully. I know his approval means a lot to her, but someone like Alek Ivanov is not easily swayed. In fact, I might have to try my entire life to win him over.
“Something doesn’t make sense to me,” he says, still trying to intimidate me. I’m already half dead, so I don’t know why he thinks glaring at me will have me shriveling into my blankets. “We pay an exorbitant amount of money to keep our business under wraps in that station. So how did you end up with all the evidence?”
I smile, surprised he hasn’t already figured it out. It makes me feel good to know I’ve had one up on him this entire time.
“You didn’t think the name you were sending all that money to was the real person, did you?” I ask carefully.
His eyebrows dip. “I’ve reached out to your chief multiple times. Personally.”
I can’t help the arrogant smile that forms on my lips. “The chief who works for me.” His eyes narrow. “You didn’t think I’d come all this way without corrupting the system and creating a business that works for me, did you? You don’t think you’re the only family paying us handsomely to make things go away, do you?” The chief was the first person I bought out and answers to me.
“Little shit,” Anya says, sounding impressed.
“So why haven’t you made this serial killer business go away yet?” Alek asks. Hope is staring at me like I grew a third head.
“Oh, you thought you were the only bad influence out of the two of us?” I reply.
I learned from a young age how to study people and decipher their patterns; it made it easy to manipulate and exploit them. It started with self-preservation, but then it became something more. I’ve made a fortune from it, more money than I know what to do with because of it.
“I was enjoying our game too much,” I tell Hope as I rub my thumb over her hand. “I wasn’t ready to catch you yet.”
“Young love is getting stupider by the day.” Anya scoffs, rolling her eyes and throwing her hands up in the air.
Hope’s eyebrows furrow as if she’s seeing me for the first time. “You always knew,” she whispers in disbelief.
“I always saw you,” I reply, and the tension in her body releases with a heavy sigh. I was right—Hope had always only ever wanted to be seen and embraced for this part of her nature. I just never thought my curiosity would lead to an obsession I would never be able to come back from. It’s specifically because of that part of her that I love her.
“I love you, Hope Ivanov. For all your ugly, deranged, twisted, and conflicting lies.”
“I love you too,” she squeaks, and her father looks like he’s going to fucking kill me. I can’t help but smirk as Hope leans over and kisses me. I deepen the kiss. Fuck the audience. Fuck the games. Fuck her family. This is my woman, and I will never be told how to act around her, even if to make others feel comfortable.
“Let’s go, Alek. We have no need to be around horny youngsters,” Anya says, and I can tell she’s dragging her brother out of the room, but I’m too preoccupied by my trophy.