Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99191 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 496(@200wpm)___ 397(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99191 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 496(@200wpm)___ 397(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
“We both seem to know a whole lot, according to you.”
He frowned. “I don’t understand why you’re being difficult. Do you need more money?” He appeared to do some quick math in his head. “I can offer you a million, but not a penny more.”
Charlie stared. “You…You’re offering me a million dollars to break up with your son.”
“Insanity would be not taking it.” He straightened, replaced the checkbook, and adjusted his jacket. “I can see that you need some time to mull it over. The offer stands.” He turned around and walked out of the kitchen, leaving her to stare after him and wonder what kind of rabbit hole she’d fallen down.
People didn’t do that. They didn’t offer to pay money to break up a couple they didn’t approve of.
Even worse was the tiny traitorous voice inside her whispering that this thing with Aiden wasn’t for real, so there shouldn’t be anything wrong if she decided to take the money and run.
Except there would be everything wrong with it.
She hadn’t agreed to this because of money. She did it because she wanted justice done. Or vengeance. Or both. At this point, she’d settle for Dmitri Romanov being taken out of the equation in any way.
The problem was that things had ceased to be that simple almost immediately. She liked Aiden. She admired his strength in the face of impossible odds. She liked his sense of humor, which she’d only gotten glimpses of before last night. She liked how he made her feel…safe…even though she’d never been in more danger than in the last week and a half.
Charlie couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt safe.
The fact that she’d been shot at should negate that feeling. Not to mention Aiden’s many masks. He actively manipulated the people around him by using their expectations of him against them. As much as she wanted to believe that he dropped the mask around her, Charlie couldn’t be 100 percent sure of it. He told her to trust her instincts, but her instincts hadn’t told her that men she’d considered brothers were dirty cops. They hadn’t told her that her father would turn against her.
They hadn’t told her that she’d go and fall for Aiden O’Malley, a man who should be the enemy.
But he was so much more than the coldly calculating crime lord that she’d first met. He had a bone-deep honor that might not fit with society’s standard, but it functioned in the world he moved within. He loved his siblings, despite occasionally making decisions that hurt them—his bottom line to always keep them protected. It was for that love and responsibility that he’d stepped into his father’s place as head of the family.
Who would have thought that Aiden would have more loyalty than both Charlie’s father and her brothers-in-arms?
She didn’t want to let him go. Not yet.
The mindless work of rinsing off her dishes in the sink did nothing to settle the feeling inside her, like one step wrong would send her hurtling off a cliff. She felt guilty for even considering taking the money. She was supposed to be the righteous one, and she was just as fallible as anyone else when push came to shove.
It wasn’t a comfortable thought.
She turned around and went still. “How much did you hear?”
“It’s a good deal.” Aiden stood in the exact same spot that his father had just a few minutes earlier, though the icy feeling his father managed to project was nowhere to be found. He looked calm—too calm. “A million dollars to end a relationship that wasn’t real to begin with.”
Hearing her treacherous thoughts come out of his mouth hurt. A lot. Charlie started to wrap her arms around herself but stopped the motion halfway through. This wasn’t who she was—this weak woman who went with the flow and didn’t dare stand against the current. It used to be that she saw what she wanted, and God help anyone who tried to stand between her and her goal. Everything she’d staked her life on—that Justice saw in black and white, and the good guys always won—had proved to be false, and reality had almost broken her. She survived, but she’d lost part of herself in the process.
I want to be that woman again.
I want Aiden.
She walked slowly to him, studying his face like her very life depended on it. Too calm. No expression showed, though he looked like he was holding his breath while waiting for her response. He doesn’t want this to end any more than I do. She wanted to believe that was the truth and not just another mask, but she was terrified she was wrong.
“It’s a good deal.” She stopped in front of him, close enough that it would be the simplest thing in the world to slip her arms around his neck and press against him. “Though I’m inclined to tell your father to fuck right off. Unless you want me to take it.”