Total pages in book: 187
Estimated words: 177397 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 887(@200wpm)___ 710(@250wpm)___ 591(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 177397 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 887(@200wpm)___ 710(@250wpm)___ 591(@300wpm)
With a defeated sigh, Nikita shakes her head.
“He’ll be okay, Keet,” I assure her, my voice cracking like Maksim’s safety isn’t hinged on Andrik’s ability to protect his son. “You’d need a tank to take him down, and it would have to be the size of a submarine to keep him away from you.” I bring back the playfulness she instigated earlier. It reminds me that there are soft sides to even the hardest men. “Not even the four deadbolts I installed on the servants’ stairwell door could stop him.” When her mouth gapes, I smile. “What? He couldn’t use the front door because it couldn’t be budged without pounding the living shit out of it, and he knew that would have woken you, so I got inventive.”
“Because?”
My thoughts stray to Andrik when I reply, “Because I wanted you to know he wasn’t giving up. He was just being a stubborn ass.” I mess up her hair because I know how much she hates it. She won’t cry if she’s angry. “Like someone else I know.”
An intercom buzzing ends her eye roll halfway around.
“Mrs. Ivanov, I have two officers here to speak with you.”
My throat grows scratchy. Those were almost the exact words Nikita spoke when she told her dad there were two officers wanting to speak with him.
I can still remember the howl Mr. Hoffman released when they told him his wife had been brutally raped and murdered.
It haunts my dreams to this day, and it is the very reason I’ve kept my focus on settling Nikita’s panic more than my own.
Nikita makes it to the foyer of her grandparents’ apartment before a heartbreaking sob tears through her.
“If he’s… oh god.” When she folds in two, gripping her stomach as furiously as nausea shreds through mine, I race to her side.
“I should have never let him go. I should have made him keep his promise. I can’t lose him, Z. I haven’t even told him that I love him yet.”
“You won’t lose him. It’ll be okay. And he already knows, Keet. He saw it on your face every time you got jealous. Why do you think he loves it so much?”
Again, my thoughts stray to Andrik. I hate how he hurt me by throwing my sister in my face, but there are so many similarities to the way Maksim loves Nikita and how Andrik was with me before his attention waned that I can’t help but compare them.
Our time in the cabana… gosh. I’ve never felt more wanted. I fell in love with him on sight, and that afternoon cemented my feelings for him.
Cement is hard to crack.
Andrik has given it his best shot over the past few weeks, but his hits barely scratched the surface. I still love him enough that I can forgive him. He just needs to ask—and perhaps fall to his knees and beg.
I’m immersed in my wicked plan of revenge I am confident I will be given the chance to execute that it takes me longer than I care to admit to learn why the tension is so rife.
Nikita is standing across from a male and a female detective. The brunette seems somewhat polite, but the gray-haired man’s aura puts my nerves on edge.
“Do I need a warrant, Dr. Fernandez?” he spits into Nikita’s face.
“It is Dr. Ivanov,” Nikita barks back, her bite just as stern. “And yes, you do. My husband owns this building, so anything inside it is his possession.”
“Then I guess it’s lucky we’re not here for him, isn’t it?”
Recalling Maksim’s instructions for Nikita if she was ever bombarded like this, I shift on my feet to face Gigi before saying, “Call Raya.” When she nods and waddles off, I butt shoulders with Nikita. “What is this in regard to?”
“Are you her lawyer?”
“No.” My words are for the female detective, but my scold is for her male counterpart. “But I don’t need to be to make sure she isn’t railroaded by a chauvinistic asshole who thinks he’s tough because he has a gun.”
The brunette attempts to take charge. “We’re here in regard to your whereabouts between the hours of”—she checks her notepad—“two p.m. yesterday afternoon until five a.m. this morning.”
I continue with Maksim’s plan. “She was here the entire time.”
The male detective exposes part of his hand when he flashes an image of Nikita in the elevator of her workplace during the timeline his colleague mentioned.
“I arrived for my shift at…” Nikita breathes out slowly before murmuring, “I’m having difficulties remembering the exact time—”
“Another lapse in memory? How convenient.”
Nikita retaliates to his snarky tone before I can. “I was drugged with a benzodiazepine that causes memory issues, so perhaps instead of wasting your time questioning me about my whereabouts, you should go search for the real criminals ruining this town.” I want to slap her back and say, Attagirl, when she snaps out, “And that person is not my husband.”