Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 72284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Lev takes my hand in his and rubs his thumb over the owl charm. His touch is gentle as he studies it, and I feel the warmth of it spread up my arm and throughout my body.
“Now, your turn,” I say, pulling my hand away. “Why did you spend a billion dollars on a pharmaceutical company so you could make dementia medication?”
He leans down to rest his arms on the railing and stares out at the moonlight on the lake.
“My grandfather died from dementia.”
“You were close?”
“He basically raised me. My father was busy as pakhan, and my mother lost interest in me when I was born. She had done her duty and produced the heir my father desperately wanted. She didn’t have a maternal bone in her body. She was all about looks and luncheons and her affairs with men that weren’t my father, and I was too much for all the nannies they employed to take care of me.” He lifts his eyebrow. “I was a bit of a handful.”
I mock gasp. “You? No.”
He smiles, but it fades. “My grandfather stepped in and taught me everything, from how to read and write, to being a man. But when I was eighteen, he developed dementia. By the time I had my twenty-first birthday, he didn’t even know who I was anymore. He died a few months later with no memories of me or our time together.”
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
“My pain is just one of a billion, Brooke. There’s nothing special about it. The disease is as widespread as it is insidious.”
“So you invested your wealth to stop other people from experiencing the same pain?”
He laughs, but it lacks humor. “It’s not that romantic, zayka. It’s business, plain and simple.”
I shrug off his denial. “I’m sure you stand to make a lot of money. But even you can’t deny that your motivations were more about saving millions of lives than greed.”
“They would be the actions of a good man.”
“Then perhaps you are a good man.”
He turns his face to look at me. “No, Brooke, that’s where you are wrong. I’m not a good man at all.”
32
LEV
As if I’m determined to drive my point home to Brooke that I am not a very good man, when the auction starts, I let my darkness come out to play.
My blood is still boiling that Vlad is here.
So when the auction starts, and he makes a bid for a diamond choker, I decide to bid higher.
I have no need for diamonds.
Hell, with my money, I could buy a diamond mine.
But he wants this piece, so I’m going to make sure he doesn’t get it.
Let the mudak learn that he should never challenge me, or I will go after everything you have and everything you want.
I don’t know why I am letting him get under my skin like this. Probably because I saw him talking with Vadim at Boris’ birthday celebration, and I didn’t like it. Seeing them huddled together made me wonder if they are working together to take me out.
Although, my uncle would have to be pretty desperate to form an alliance with a street hustler like Vlad who has no alliances of his own, no experience, and absolutely no power.
But if Vadim is desperate enough, who knows what he is capable of?
“One hundred thousand dollars,” he bids loudly, holding up his paddle.
He glances over at me, a slimy grin on his face. Then his gaze shifts to Brooke and lingers. He licks his lips, and I can see the hunger in his snake eyes.
I hold up my bid paddle. “Three hundred and fifty thousand motherfucking dollars.”
The room erupts with gasps, and I don’t know if it’s because of my foul language or the fact that I just dropped more money in this room than everyone combined tonight.
I don’t need to look at Vlad to know he’s burning holes at me right now with his beady little eyes.
Bid again, motherfucker, and I’ll keep outbidding you until you’re broke.
But he doesn’t.
Because he doesn’t have anywhere near the resources and power that I do.
And now everyone in this room knows it.
The auctioneer slams down his hammer. “Sold to the very distinguished gentleman at table one.”
People clap and watch with fascination as the necklace is brought to me. The box it’s in is open, and the diamonds glitter brightly against the black velvet.
As everyone watches keenly, I take the choker from the box, slide it around Brooke’s slender throat, and secure it at the clasp. She gasps, and the room hums with murmurs of delight.
I look across at Vlad, who is watching.
Then I fix him with a dark gaze that reads one thing.
Mine.
33
BROOKE
When the auction finishes, I excuse myself to visit the restroom.
What the hell was that?
I half expected Lev to pee on me to drive home some point to Vlad.