Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 59983 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 300(@200wpm)___ 240(@250wpm)___ 200(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59983 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 300(@200wpm)___ 240(@250wpm)___ 200(@300wpm)
A bubble of laughter teases me as I wonder how he’d react with this pathetic plea to take him back if he were to know I’m carrying his brother or sister.
“Liliana!” he calls out once with that expectant tone that I’ll heed his wishes.
I lift my hand and flip him off without looking back.
One of these days, before this baby comes, I’ll need to fully master the fine art of avoiding all Sokolov men.
18
ANTON
Every day, the men update me on where Liliana is. Her routine is mapped out, and I doubt there’s much left to learn about her movements.
None of the Sokolov guards know why she’s my target of the moment, and that suits me for now. The second I let on how much this young blonde is starting to matter, I show the world I have a weakness.
I never have to seek out a woman. They come to me, every woman in the city hungry for my attention and hopeful for my money.
I never have to chase a woman, either. They leave when I expect them to, and since I put my work as pakhan above everything else, no follow-up is ever required. Once I’ve had a lover, she’s gone. On my terms.
Except Liliana.
“Are you planning to speak with her again?” Viktor asks as we enter the lower level of a warehouse where I intend to witness the execution of a spy my men captured after a long game of cat and mouse.
I glance at him, bothered that he’s being slightly nosy. This is Viktor, though. He’s not asking to pry, even though the novelty of me holding this long an interest in a woman—even from afar—has to be confusing him.
“I’m not sure yet,” I admit.
I can’t stop thinking about her, and I can’t figure out what to do with her either. She’s in a twisted spot, serving one purpose as one of the many who owe the Bratva money. Her other purpose, as the woman I crave, runs far deeper.
“Because of the loan her parents have on the bakery?” he asks.
I button my suit jacket as another guard opens an inner door for us. We step into the viewing area of the cell, and though a window separates us from the killing, I don’t let the gruesome scene change the subject. Only with my loyal assistant can I be this open.
“Because of the loan,” I agree. “She’s too proud to accept charity.”
He tosses me a dubious look.
“And it matters.” I clear my throat. When I get Liliana to submit to me, and I will, I want her to do it with no leverage or obligation hanging over her. Now that business stands between us, I hate that she might cave just to wipe the slate clean. The thought of her sleeping with me again to buy off the debt turns my stomach.
Because then it’s business.
Not personal.
And I want everything with her strictly in the realm of what’s intimate and personal between us. Nothing else. No contingencies.
“You want her to submit because she wants to?” he guesses as the Sokolov enforcer slits the spy’s throat. Blood rushes out, dark and fast.
I nod. It reads as approval of what I’m witnessing, a stamp of agreement that my men have killed this hard-to-catch spy of my enemies. But it’s also a gesture for Viktor to read. He’s exactly right. I don’t want Liliana surrendering to me for any reward other than the bliss we found together.
How to achieve that remains a mystery. Still, when I return to my building at the end of the night and say goodnight to Viktor as he heads to his floor of the skyscraper I call home, I try to trust that a solution will present itself. I’ve got men watching her. She’s within my sight, if only indirectly, and that reassures me she won’t slip away.
But I’m not sure how long I can keep testing my own patience like this.
Or why I’m doing it at all.
I’m Anton Sokolov. Ruler of crime in this city.
People bend to my will, but with her, I’m hooked on the possibility that she could be more than a conquest or an escape. I can’t shake the idea of her being so much more, a reason for my life to feel brighter and fuller than ruling with absolute power.
I enter my penthouse and come to a stop.
Elena stands in front of me.
She smiles, a seductive curl of her mouth as she hugs herself. In a long black fur coat, her face caked in makeup, she clears her throat.
“I was wondering when you’d finally come home.”
My anger lights up in an instant. “This is my home.”
“You used to say home was wherever I was.”
I doubt I ever uttered such romantic nonsense to her. But it’s not worth calling her out on such a trivial lie. “Leave.”