Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 106159 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 531(@200wpm)___ 425(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106159 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 531(@200wpm)___ 425(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
“No. None of that is true.”
“Bullshit!” My shout gains our tiff many eyes, but I don’t hold back. “Why did you accept a bounty on my head if it isn’t true?”
I recoil like he slapped me when he answers, “So no one else would! Any time my family contested the will, the bounty went up. Whoever wanted your money wouldn’t stop until you were dead, so I made out I had done the job, then set to work unearthing who wanted you dead.” He steps closer to me. “You think I only care about the money?” When I nod, he says, “Then why didn’t I come after you immediately? And why didn’t I take you down with him?”
“Because framing me for a murder I didn’t commit would gain you access to your money sooner than a nasty court battle.”
“I didn’t frame you.” He’s lying and it eats at him until he can’t help but confess. “I simply erased the footage that proved you were innocent.”
“Why? Why risk my freedom like that?”
“Because no matter what they saw, the facts wouldn’t alter. The bullet in his heart and the ones in his gun didn’t match. I took the shot from over a mile away. The bullets in long-range rifles and his piddly ass gun aren’t close to the same. You should have gotten off on the forensic evidence alone.”
“But I didn’t!” I whack him in the chest twice. “I was convicted by a jury of my peers.”
“Who are all fucking dead because of their stupidity.” He works his jaw side to side while murmuring, “Don’t look at me like that. You know as well as I do they were all corrupt.”
He’s right. My case was rigged from the start, but I’m too angry to admit that. “That doesn’t give you the right to kill them. Just like you had no right to kill your father. If you had just let me leave, I would have filed for an annulment, and none of this would have happened.”
“I had every right to kill him. He was touching my wife.”
“I wasn’t your fucking wife!” I scream in his face.
“Yes, you were! Not by law or a stupid piece of paper, but by our souls. You were always meant to be mine, Natalya. From the moment I saw you and even when you entered his room as his wife, wide-eyed and confused, you have always been mine. You will always be mine.”
“No,” I deny with a brisk shake of my head. “Who I love is my choice, not yours or my mother's or any other person you threaten to make documents look authentic. Who I marry is my fucking choice.”
“You chose me.”
“No,” I deny again. “I chose who I thought you were.” I wave my hand around the people who fought to protect the lie. “This isn’t you.” I screw up my face when I realize the mistake in my reply. “Or perhaps it is because I truly don’t know who you are.” My voice cracks during my next sentence. “Congratulations, Matvei, you stole the top spot on my worst husband list.”
When he snatches up my wrist to stop me from leaving, I pivot back around so fast the leverage of my spin makes my slap sound like a crack of lightning in a dark, stormy cloud. It forces Matvei’s head to the side and sets my palm on fire.
It mentally pains Matvei as well as it physically hurts him, but he works his jaw side to side before he murmurs, “I’m not letting you go until you know the truth.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me, Natalya. It matters to me!” He lowers his voice a few decibels before murmuring, “You matter to me.”
My heart launches into my throat when the click of a safety being switched off breaks through the thud of my pulse in my ears. “She asked you to let her go.” Despite his chest being lit up with dozens of red dots, Saka moves closer. “Don’t make me force you to listen.”
“Saka…” The number of guns on him is already worrying, but he shouldn’t get within reaching distance of Matvei, especially since he is endeavoring to place distance between us.
“Let her go,” he demands again, his eyes dropping to Matvei’s clutch on my wrist for the quickest second before they return to his face.
“You’ll be dead before the bullet leaves your gun,” Matvei threatens, his voice unlike anything I’ve heard.
“At least I’ll go down an honorable man.” Saka looks like he wants to spit at Matvei’s feet. “Unlike you. You said you wouldn’t stop until she’s no longer living in fear. That you wanted to give her back her freedom.”
“I do!”
“Then keep your fucking promise. Let her go.” He hits Matvei where it hurts. “If you force her to stay, you’re no better than your father. She will never be more than a captive to you.” My heart squeezes in panic when Matvei’s grip on my wrist slips. He hasn’t let me go, but I’m reasonably sure that is his plan when Saka says, “It has to be her choice. It was always meant to be her choice. That’s why you walked away the first time.”