Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 82878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 414(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 414(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
“Well, if he didn’t know who you were before, he does now. He knows I’m willing to risk my life for yours. So, I’m not willing to take the chance that he won’t go for you,” Viktor insists. “I once made a mistake like this before. I assumed something would be safe and it wasn’t. My fiancée paid with her life, and I won’t let that happen to you, Amelia. Not now, not ever.”
I bite my lower lip. There’s a sharp prick of jealousy to think of his ex. Even though she’s dead, she was pregnant with his child. He must have loved her. There is still feeling in his eyes now. “How did she die?”
“She was shot. The bullet wasn’t meant for her, but me. She got caught in the crossfire. She died in my arms,” Viktor says, his voice breaking slightly.
“Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” I say, snuggling more tightly against him.
“It’s okay. It’s all in the past now and it took a very long time, but I’ve made my peace with it. But like I say, I won’t let it happen again. I can’t lose you, Amelia. I can’t.”
I think for a moment. The last thing I want is for Viktor and me to be apart, but I can hear the raw pain in his voice as he talks about his fiancée’s death, and I don’t want to be responsible for bringing all of that back and making him feel like it could happen again.
“Ok,” I say. “We’ll act like we’ve split up. But I don’t think a safe house is the answer. I’ll go back to my mom’s place. That’s what I would do if we really broke up and it’ll make the whole thing seem more believable.”
“Your mom’s place?” Viktor asks surprised. “I thought you two hadn’t spoken since you left.”
“We hadn’t until this morning. I was waiting for you to come home from work so we could talk about it, but obviously with everything that happened, I haven’t had a chance to tell you. My mom saw us in the newspaper after you did that interview about the fire, and she’s been trying to track me down ever since. Actually, she claims she’s been trying to track me down since I left the trailer. She said she’s seen the error of her ways and she’s left Dan. She’s staying in a separate trailer now and she asked me to move back home. Or at least to consider making her a part of my life again. I told her I would think about it.”
“Do you believe her?” Viktor asks evenly, as if he doesn’t want to show me his true thoughts.
“I want to. But I’m a bit afraid to. I worry things will be good for so long, and then she’ll get bored of being single and find some deadbeat boyfriend and the cycle will start over again.”
“I hope to have this Igor thing wrapped up quickly, so hopefully that won’t happen before I do. And you’re right. Going back to your mom’s place is a good idea. Trailer parks are not his scene.”
“All right. I’ll go live with my mom for a while.” I would have preferred to think about it longer and only go live with my mom when I’m good and ready, but I can’t insist on staying here and leave Viktor with a choice of either forcing me out or being left walking on eggshells constantly.
“When this is over, Amelia, I want you to move back in here immediately. I want us to be officially together… unless you don’t want that.”
I push myself away from him and look at him in wonder. “Are you kidding me? Of course, I want that. When I said I wanted to talk to you about what my mom said, I didn’t mean I didn’t want to be with you. I was just debating whether or not to let her back into my life.”
Viktor smiles and I can see the relief in it. “So, the plan is you go back to your mom’s trailer in the morning. As soon as you find her new trailer, I want you to text me the exact location of it, and after that, we will have no contact at all unless it’s a life-or-death emergency. The second Igor is dealt with, I will come and get you.”
“It’s going to be hard, isn’t it? Not even being able to talk to each other,” I say.
“Yeah,” Viktor agrees. “But you understand why it has to be that way don’t you?”
I nod. In truth, I think it’s all confusing and incomprehensible to me, but after Viktor has already lost one girl he loved because of something he was mixed up in, I do understand why he’s going to such lengths to make our breakup look real and to keep me out of the line of fire.