Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 41558 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 208(@200wpm)___ 166(@250wpm)___ 139(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 41558 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 208(@200wpm)___ 166(@250wpm)___ 139(@300wpm)
I brushed a kiss over it, trying to soothe away her concern. “What’s wrong, Bambi?”
“I’m worried about my friends,” she admitted. “About the engagement. About everything.”
My arms firmed around her at the mention of the engagement to that Russian bastard. “You’re not marrying him. I’ll fix this.”
Her eyes sparkled, and she pressed a hand to my cheek. “How? I don’t want you to kill Niko. I don’t want you to kill anyone.” The worry line on her forehead deepened. “I meant what I said. I love you, but I can’t be with someone who’s involved in organized crime.” She placed her fingers over my lips, forestalling my insistent reply that she was mine, no matter what. “You’ve told me that love is hard, but that’s not true. It shouldn’t be. Love doesn’t come with cruelty. Please, Max. You have to see that your family is toxic. They’ve hurt you in such awful ways. They tried to kill me. Why are you loyal to them?” The last hitched in her throat, a demand and a plea.
No worthy man would betray the woman he loves in exchange for power. You can make another choice. My grandfather’s rebuke played through my mind. Yes, I could’ve chosen differently. I didn’t have to follow through with blackmailing Allie’s dad, not once I knew how it would hurt her.
And the consequences had been even worse than the emotional fallout I’d feared. Her friends were in danger, and she’d been forced to accept a ring from that Russian scum.
I stroked her copper hair behind her ear. “I love you, and I hurt you,” I reminded her roughly.
Just like my family had always hurt me.
Love is hard.
“Yes,” she agreed softly. “You did. But you can make it right. I will never hurt you, Max.”
Emotion clogged my throat. No, my sweet Allie wouldn’t cause me pain. Not like my sister with her caustic words. Not like my father with his violence. And not like my cousins, who’d committed the worst sin against me: they’d tried to take Allie from me.
Her love was pure and unconditional, and it could all be mine if I was brave enough to choose her, to walk away from everything I’d ever known so that I could be worthy of her.
As I looked into her shining green eyes, a new future stretched out before me, one that wasn’t steeped in blood, rage, and hatred. I’d stolen her from her pretty, easy life, changed her world forever by revealing ugly truths to her. I’d pulled her into the shadows, but she’d dragged me out of the depths of darkness.
I placed my hand over her heart, so I could feel its steady pulse beneath my palm. “I’m yours,” I swore. “I’ll leave my family. I’ll be better for you.”
“You will?” She barely breathed the words, as though she was scared that I would take it back.
I nodded, the decision settling deep inside me. Facing the unknown should terrify me, but with Allie nestled in my arms, I only felt a warm sense of peace. She soothed me like nothing else, making me forget all my fury at the world. She made the pain of my losses bearable, because she’d shared hers with me. She accepted all of me, even the scarred, ugly parts. We were from different worlds, but our souls were alike.
“I’ll go talk to my father in the morning,” I vowed. “I’ll tell him I want out.”
She placed her hand over mine, pressing my palm more tightly to her chest. Lines of strain appeared around her lovely eyes. “I don’t want you to confront him. He might hurt you again.” Her fingers trailed over my scar, making my deadened nerves tingle.
I leaned into her tender touch. “I have to face him. If I disappear, he’ll hunt me down. You and I would have to spend our lives in hiding. And then your friends would still be in danger.”
She shivered and bit her lip. “What are we going to do? I can’t marry Niko, but I have to protect them.”
My fingers tangled in her hair, cradling her head so I could pull her in for a fierce, possessive kiss. “He can’t have you,” I growled. “I’ll fix this.”
“How? What can we do?”
“I’ll try to undo the blackmail,” I said. “I haven’t told my father it’s done, and no one else has a copy of the recording; I didn’t trust anyone in my family with it.” Further proof that I didn’t need to remain bound to their cruelty. I’d always known that I couldn’t rely on them to have my back. “We’ll go to your father together. I can tell him that the deal is dead, and I’ll destroy the recording. You can ask him to get his Russian friends to back off.”
I hoped it wasn’t too late to take it all back, but I would do anything to keep her safe and out of Nikolai Ivanov’s arms. The glory, the bloody birthright I’d been so keen to reclaim, meant nothing to me now. Allie was all that mattered.