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)
To remind her who was in control.
Hint: it wasn’t Keira.
She slid into the backseat and inched as far away from the door as she could before Dmitri joined her. I can do this. I just have to last until we get to the house, and then I can crack open that giant bottle of vodka and not think for a little while.
Dmitri apparently had enough of poking at her, because he sat silently as they cut through the streets in the direction of Manhattan. The ride passed quickly enough, though her hands were shaking by the time they pulled to a stop in front of an apartment building.
Keira laughed out loud at the sight. There weren’t bars on the window, but there might as well have been a sign proclaiming it to be home of the resident evil overlord. It was in the overlarge front door—even bigger than the one in the O’Malley residence—and the massive iron-framed windows, each with dark curtains on the other side, blocking out any view of the interior. It was beautiful, but there was a definite modern gothic flair that she wouldn’t have expected from Dmitri. “You called me dramatic. Those living in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”
“Hmm?” He climbed out of the car, her bag firmly in one hand, and held the door open for her.
“This.” She stepped onto the sidewalk and frowned at the building. “You have private parking somewhere, I’m assuming.” He didn’t answer, but she wasn’t about to let that stop her. “Would have been smarter to go in there, but you couldn’t resist making an impression, could you?” Keira strode up the stairs to the massive wooden door. It looked like something that should be at a dark and stormy castle, complete with gargoyles. There was even an oversized knocker right in the center of it. “It’d be better if this was a face, preferably screaming in agony.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
She ignored the amusement in his tone and tried the handle. Unlocked. Keira pushed through the door and stepped into the massive entranceway. If the building looked like renovated apartments on the outside, the interior had been completely gutted and changed. She looked around, trying to feel something other than the itch to pop open a bottle, but she couldn’t focus. “Where’s my room? I want to be alone.”
“Keira.”
She could charge up the stairs, but her pointed exit would be ruined by not knowing where her bedroom was. She sighed and turned to face him. “Yes?”
“When is the last time you spent twenty-four hours sober?”
She was not touching that question with a ten-foot pole. “I don’t remember reading anything requiring sobriety in the contract…” Keira snapped her fingers. “Oh, that’s right. There wasn’t a contract. There was just you being shady and expecting everyone else to play along.” She had to get out of there. She was holding it together by a hair. Even though it went against everything she was, she let a little vulnerability creep into her voice. “Romanov, please. I’m tired and I’m worried about my friend and brother, and you just threw a surprise marriage at me. Cut me a break and give me some time to find my feet.” She held her breath, watching him watch her.
Finally, he nodded. “Your room is on the second floor. Third door on the right.”
That was it. No offering to walk her up there. No pointed comments about her wifely duties. She wasn’t sure if she was relieved or disappointed. Keira pointed at the bag he still held. “My things.”
Dmitri passed it over, though he didn’t look impressed. “Whatever you need will be provided for you. Just let me or one of my men know.”
Don’t look at the bars of the cage. Look at all the pretty things you can have.
She clamped her mouth shut to keep from saying the words aloud, as if that would somehow make this whole shit show real. Keira nodded and headed up the stairs, feeling his gaze on her the entire way.
Alethea Eldridge studied her only daughter. She’d had such high hopes for Mae when she was a little girl, dreams of her daughter following in her footsteps and carving out a little territory of her own—expanding the territory they currently occupied. It was what Alethea herself had done when she’d reached the point where her mother trusted her with operations.
Those dreams were dust now. First when Andrei Romanov forced them to become part of his operation, and again when Dmitri Romanov tried to extinguish their existence completely.
Alethea knew her strengths. She never wanted to rule all of New York—it was more trouble than it was worth—but being stripped of what little power the Eldridges had and treated as little more than a henchman?
It couldn’t go unanswered.
The situation was even more dire now that Mae had lost control yet again. Alethea crossed her arms over her chest and looked down her nose at her daughter. “I had Romanov and O’Malley right where I wanted them, but you managed to get them to stop bickering and unite against us. Twice.”