Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 83195 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83195 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
It’s nice. And familiar. A bit of home.
I watch him as he walks into another room, trying my hardest to ignore Alek’s presence. I head for the elevator. I don’t want to deal with Cinita or Alek, and I’m sure Julie will understand if I send her a text to apologize.
I step into the elevator, grateful it opened immediately. I grab my phone to text Julie, but I’m startled as Alek invades my space before the doors shut.
The doors close before I can get off, and I silently curse under my breath.
“You’ve kissed a lot of men today, it seems,” he says, standing way too close to me.
“Seems you want too many people,” I shoot back, not looking his way, instead staring at my phone to type out the message.
“No, I only want one. Who was that, Lena?” His tone has a deadly edge, and I can’t help but raise my head and meet his eyes. He’s only a breath away from me. It’s impossible to ignore this man.
“Why do you care?” I bite out. Because he doesn’t get to have a say about anything that pertains to me.
“I have to decide whether I think he’ll be good enough to keep treating Cinita or if I should kill him.”
“Oh my god! Don’t you dare threaten to kill my brother again,” I growl, and shove him. He just smirks down at me.
“Your brother?”
The elevator doors open, and as I step off, I spin around and say, “Go and kiss your other woman, you pig.”
The person waiting seems too nervous to step into the elevator with him.
Before I can take another step, he grabs me and pulls me back toward him. Our bodies collide, and he grabs my face with both hands and slams his lips against mine. I feel the elevator start to move, but I’m helpless to stop it. He pushes me up against the wall and runs his hands down my body. My hips are traitorous, as they grind against him, wanting and needing more than this panty-dropping kiss.
When he manages to pull away, he stares at me. “Just you. You’re the only one I want to kiss.” He takes my breath away as he traces the back of his finger along my cheekbone.
I can’t look away as I try to catch my breath. I’m fighting against myself. I know I shouldn’t want more. But every part of me comes alive when he touches me like that.
The doors open again, and I shove him away from me, wiping my mouth as an older couple walks in.
I step off and don’t look back.
Even though I can sense his smile.
Asshole.
CHAPTER 26
Aleksandr
“Looks like your trouble has found you,” River says through the phone. The moment Cinita ended up in the hospital, I called on River for a favor. She wouldn’t give me the names of those who put her there, so I’ll use my own resources to find out.
His tracker’s name is Will, an Englishman who has a knack for finding people in hiding. He’d once found me in Russia. He was the only person to come close, and when he did, I put a bullet in his shoulder.
Now I’m paying double the price to have him discover the names of the people who hurt Cinita. I’d originally had him looking for her, but when she ended up in coma, I changed my focus to uncovering those who’d done it to her.
She was used as a toy for their amusement, and I won’t let that slide.
I look at my phone screen and see live footage of three men sitting in a car outside the hospital. “This is them?” I ask.
“Yes,” River says. “You better deal with this quickly. If Anya finds out you’re not yet done with the dancer, she’s going to gut both of us alive.”
“I didn’t take you for the type to be scared of my sister,” I say as I take in the mess that is Cinita’s hospital room. She’s sleeping at the moment after trying to destroy the room an hour before because she couldn’t get her next hit.
“If I wasn’t scared of your sister, she wouldn’t like me so much,” River replies, and I agree with him. Anya thrives off the power.
“Have Anya send Clay and Vance to look after Cinita while I’m gone,” I tell him, kicking off the wall. “I’m going to deal with these fuckers since they so kindly brought themselves to me.”
I hang up on River as I make my way downstairs. It’s late in the evening, and it makes sense that they’d come at this time. They most likely thought she’d be alone and jonesing for her next high, which means she’d go with them willingly.
Had I known I’d just have to wait it out, I wouldn’t have spent this past week fixated on trying to find them instead of being where I really wanted. And that was with Lena.