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)
Oh god.
With a mask slipped over my face to conceal my teetering emotions, I say to Matvei, “I hope you enjoyed your performance,” before I leap to my feet and race out the door.
5
NATALYA
My first thought is to sprint for the closest exit, but when a timer rings, announcing I’ve reached the end of our agreed time, I snatch up the gym bag Jax mentioned earlier before pulling open a heavily weighted door and racing outside.
Jax calls my name, but since it occurs at the same time I trade a glance with Saka, who is reading the riot act to a bouncer refusing his request to reenter the premises, I act ignorant.
“Please don’t,” I plead when Saka’s expression announces the bouncer is only being subjected to one tenth of the lecture he’s preparing to unleash on me the instant we’re alone. “You asked me to stay put. I did as asked.”
“At a strip club?” he replies, his words as stern as the stomps he conducts to bridge the gap between us.
While he walks me to the passenger side door of our SUV like a toddler overdue for a nap, I grumble under my breath that I had no clue it was a strip club when he demanded I seek shelter in the closest public place.
He buckles me in as if I am a child while scolding, “Your father—”
“Doesn’t need to know about this,” I interrupt, my tone as breathless as it was when I was kneeling in front of Matvei. “I was a guest at Spanks, not a dancer.”
Saka glares at me as if “liar” is stamped across my forehead before he slams my door shut, marches to the other side, then slips behind the steering wheel. Even with his jaw spasming and his hands wringing the leather-grained steering wheel, he can’t help but take on the role of both good cop and bad cop. For the past several months, he’s been the only one helming my reckless ship, so tonight’s antics won’t mix things up too much.
“Are you okay?”
I nod, but after seizing the gym bag plumped out with money and tossing it onto the back seat, he physically checks me for injuries.
Don’t let your mind stray too far into the gutter. He’d never be inappropriate. He is the equivalent of a father to me, but with age comes experience. Even the skimpiest bit of material can hide fatal wounds.
During a typhoon that knocked out the power for days, Saka shared stories of his time in the US military. One of his stories was about his squad leader being killed by a half-inch wound to his armpit. For days, they’d thought he had died of natural causes. Only during his autopsy was foul play revealed.
Saka left the military shortly after the real cause of death was exposed. He said, who can you trust if you can’t trust the men and women meant to have your back?
The reminder of our conversation has me desperate to tell him about the bribe I offered Vasily, but his morals keep my mouth shut. He’d make me return the money to Matvei before wrongly believing he could talk sense into Vasily.
He thinks everyone can be swayed to take the high road because he has no clue not every man is as ethically motivated as him.
Once Saka is confident I am without injury, he strays his eyes to the door I whizzed out of like my ass was on fire.
When his expression switches from furious to shocked, I follow the direction of his gaze.
I can’t see what has him so rattled. There’s no one around. Even the bouncer has gone back inside.
“What is it?” I ask, my voice still husky from the lust smoldering through my veins.
Saka’s Adam’s apple bobs up and down before he shrugs off his shock. “Nothing.” He fires up the engine. “Put your belt on.”
I roll my eyes like I loathe his overprotectiveness.
In reality, I love it.
He’s lasted this long because he doesn’t see me as an easy payday. He genuinely cares about me. I can’t say that about many people in my life. I could count those who do on one hand, so although he drives me nuts, I can admit I’d be lost without him.
Partway home, Saka’s eyes drop to my feet. I inwardly cuss when I realize I’m still wearing the stilettos Jax lent me. “My new pumps were killing me, so Taylor and I swapped.” When I catch my error, I correct, “Maria. I meant to say Maria.”
Taylor and Millie traveled with Polina and me. Despite Saka’s fashion choices never veering past white button-up shirts and black slacks, he would have paid careful attention to every article of clothing my friends and I were wearing.
Sometimes, he could only identify his comrades after combat by their shoes.
The thought makes me shiver.