Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 89985 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 450(@200wpm)___ 360(@250wpm)___ 300(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89985 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 450(@200wpm)___ 360(@250wpm)___ 300(@300wpm)
I didn’t like that she’d lost a lot of weight in the past month since she’d gotten out of the hospital. According to my staff, she barely ate anything. She often skipped breakfast, and rarely touched her dinner.
In the past month I had come to realize that Niamh didn’t like to make any kind of scene in public. Even though she was upset with me, because we had an audience, she didn’t fight me.
“Are you all right?” I asked.
Niamh looked at me and then past my shoulder. I’d not seen her smile in so long, nor did she look relaxed in my company.
“Yes.”
“Dance with me,” I said. I held my hand out for her to take and I know she debated ignoring it, but again, we were in public. Ivan was there, friends and family. A lot of people she didn’t know, and Niamh didn’t like to embarrass anyone.
She slid her hand into mine, and I held onto hers tightly, not wanting to let her go. Leading the way onto the dance floor, no one stopped us as I pulled her in close. Niamh tensed as I placed my hand on the base of her back.
“What was The Butcher doing in the bathroom?” I asked.
The music had started up and I had to figure out something to say to start the conversation.
“Doing her impression of really bad pep talks,” she said. “I don’t think she has had many friends, and considering I don’t have a lot of friends, that is saying something.”
This made me smile.
“Why do you want to know?”
“I don’t trust her,” I said.
“She’s working for Ivan.”
“Yeah, but I don’t trust anyone and it has not steered me wrong.” I had no doubt in Ivan’s choosing, but it didn’t change my feelings. I wasn’t going to trust The Butcher until she and The Beast had proven themselves completely.
I knew they’d been there for Ivan when he needed them, but that didn’t matter to me. Time and loyalty, when put to the test, was what I cared about.
Loyalty could be bought, and with both of them always taking a paycheck for their next kill, I wasn’t going to trust them. They were no different than any assassin or bounty hunter. They were not Brigadiers.
“You don’t trust me?” Niamh asked.
I looked into her eyes. “I do trust you.”
She snorted. “I highly doubt that.”
“You can doubt all you want. I still trust you.”
“How can you trust me when I lied to you from the start?” Niamh asked.
“Simple. You lied to protect yourself and others. You knew what your father was capable of. If you were given the choice, would you have still lied?”
“What?” Niamh asked.
“If you had the choice to tell me the truth without any consequences for my safety, would you have told me the lie or the truth?”
She pressed her lips together.
“Exactly. You don’t need to answer, I know the truth.”
“Would you have still lied to me?” she asked.
Shit!
“I would have done whatever Ivan told me to,” I said.
“So, that’s a yes. That means I cannot trust you.”
We had stopped dancing as we talked, and I quickly changed that, drawing Niamh into me.
“You can trust me.”
Niamh suddenly stopped and I looked at her.
“No, because you will do whatever Ivan Volkov tells you to do, and if one day he tells you I’m not needed and you have to kill me, you will.”
She pulled away from me, ending our dance.
Chapter Fifteen
Niamh
My wedding night.
Growing up, I had moments when I would think about my wedding and the man I was going to marry. It was strange, as I could barely picture him. I’d always been able to picture the future. I could imagine a couple of kids. I didn’t care what sex they were, as long as they were healthy. I’d think about special events like Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, even New Years, and then of course there were special birthdays. I wanted to be the kind of mom my kids could come to for anything. Needed brownies for a bake sale, I was your gal. A costume for a Halloween party, I totally could whip one up. Gifts at Christmas, I was the queen of the shopping mall. I’d have a man who loved me for me. The perfect family. In my head, that was.
Instead, I was sitting on the edge of a bed in a very expensive hotel, with complete strangers around me. Well, not in the hotel room, but all the guests were complete strangers. Even my half-brother was a stranger. I also knew he didn’t like me. He certainly didn’t like that I was now married into the Volkov Bratva.
It was hard for me to wrap my head around, because I’d never even heard of the Volkov Bratva, but then I’d been kept out of the loop about everything. I wasn’t allowed to know anything or anyone. My place was just to serve, and that was exactly what I did—served.