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)
“Sing for me, sunshine,” he rasps.
“No! You’re okay. You’re going to be okay. You’re invincible.”
The door slams open, and I hear a flurry of Russian as Anya rushes into the room. She tries to tear me away from Alek, and River and the Englishman grab him, but I cling to him, staring into his forest-green eyes that seem to be dimming.
“No!” I scream as I elbow Anya in the face to pry myself from her grip. “No!” I trip on myself as they carry him out, and I’m on my knees, staring in horror as they take him away. “No, you’re supposed to be invincible, Aleksandr Ivanov! Don’t leave me!” I yell on a sob as they carry him down the hall.
I’m eye level with Cinita’s body and feel another nauseating swirl of bile and hatred.
I’m furious I can’t kill her myself for taking the one thing I’ve ever truly loved.
CHAPTER 51
Lena
Ihaven’t slept for two days, not for any length of time anyway. I know I’ve probably dipped off for a few minutes here and there, but the moment my head drops, I’m awake again.
We’re in one of Anya’s spare rooms, and the doctor has been in and out nonstop. Anya has been in here almost just as much as me. Just like now, as she leans against the door and stares down at Alek as if she’s fending off the Grim Reaper herself.
We haven’t spoken since that night. I stroke over Alek’s thumb as I sit beside his bed. The doctor said the blade hadn’t hit anything vital, but he’d lost a lot of blood. He should make a full recovery, but it doesn’t take away from the sense of impending doom.
“You need sleep, Lena,” Anya finally says.
“I’m fine.” But my voice is nothing but a rasp. “I want to be here when he wakes up.”
“There won’t be much left of you if you don’t eat or sleep.”
I look at her then. “I could say the same to you.” She has bruising around the eye I elbowed, and I cringe that I can still see it through her makeup.
“I’m sorry about hitting you in the face.”
She pins me with a lethal stare. “Just know if you’d broke this perfect nose, you would’ve left in a body bag.”
I would usually laugh at that. But there’s no humor in this room. It seems impossible for Alek to be in this state. He always seemed untouchable. Invincible. And it’s because of me he’s in this mess in the first place.
“I should’ve killed the little dancer the moment I realized she was using him,” Anya says thoughtfully. “No one will know about this. None will learn that Alek Ivanov bleeds. Especially at the hands of a junkie bitch.”
I flinch under her harshness. I still can’t get the graphic image of Cinita out of my mind. I haven’t gone back to the apartment, don’t want to ever again.
Apparently, it’d been “dealt with,” but I can’t scrub the ordeal from my mind.
A tap sounds on the door. Anya steps forward to let in River and the English fellow, whose name I’ve learned is Will.
“We tracked down Cinita’s associate who attempted the ransom demand with her. He denied being part of it,” River says.
“So what did you do with him?” Anya asks, her arms crossed, not looking away from her brother.
“Dealt with him, of course.”
I’ve discovered that “dealt with” meant they were dead.
“Good,” she replies.
“You’re quick,” Anya tells Will, who gives her a charismatic smile. She then looks at me. “Will here was the one who realized Cinita was at your home that night. That’s why he and Alek arrived when they did, and River and I shortly after.”
A chill runs down my spine. Had they not gotten there at just that moment… Alek would’ve been too late. But was that so bad? Then he wouldn’t be here like this.
“Even once I’m done with a target, I tend to watch their movements a few months after, especially if I think they’re a wild card,” Will explains, and offers me a gentlemanly bow. “I think your boyfriend’s a dickhead, but I’m glad I stayed around. I would’ve hated to see him on a rampage in this city if anything happened to you.”
My jaw tightens, and I try to hold in the tears as I quietly rasp, “Thank you,” then look back at Alek.
Sing for me, sunshine. He’d said it as if it was the last and only thing he wanted before leaving this world.
Danger or not, I realized at that moment I have no other place I’d rather be than by his side. Alek is many things, including a killer. That fact once terrified me, but now I realize not having him in my life is worse.
A world without Alek would not be worth singing in.
CHAPTER 52
Aleksandr
Everything hurts.