Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 86238 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86238 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Yev must notice the same. “How about we get you showered and organize something to eat? Then you might not be so confused.”
As he helps me assist my father into the bathroom, I ask Yev, “Should you go?” I’m not sure how much experience he has with a gun, but his fists are capable of taking down a man or three. That’s one to three less men for Alek.
“I can’t,” Yev replies. He waits for my father to grab a hold of the shower rail before twisting to face me. “You’ve always been my primary assignment. If Alek isn’t with you, I need to be.”
“That was years ago, Yev. That doesn’t count now!” I’m yelling at the wrong person, but it is what I do when I am stressed.
“He made me promise years ago, Ana, but it’s remained in place ever since.” I suck in a shocked gasp when he murmurs, “Why do you think I’m so tanned? The Sicily sun loves my skin as much as yours.”
I don’t know whether I should punch him or hug him, so instead, I use words. “Why didn’t you ever reach out?” I could have used a friend my first couple of months abroad. I was lonely, homesick, and grieving the loss of both my child and the love of my life.
“Because you were happy, and that is all Alek ever wanted, so he asked me to keep my watch undisclosed unless I thought it was absolutely necessary.” His smirk is half cocky, half remorseful. “You seemed to handle electronic contact just fine.” When a stupid expression crosses my face, he bumps me with his hip before shifting the focus to anything but the girly hormones I can’t control when it comes to the men I love. “Get him showered. While I rustle him up something to eat, I’ll see what I can find out.” He rubs my arm like he still isn’t brave enough to pull me in for a hug like he did on my sixteenth birthday. “But you need to stop worrying. The old man is a tank. Nothing will take him down.”
I’d feel more confident in his saying if I didn’t once believe the same about my father.
Now he is a withered old man who saw out his prime before he reached it.
“It’s been hours, Yev.” My eyes stray from the sun peeking on the horizon to him slouched on a replica of the couch my father fell asleep on hours ago. “How much longer do we have to wait for news?” I’m the most panicked I’ve ever been. The only time I’ve felt this hopeless was when the doctor told me my fall had caused the placenta to detach from my uterine wall and there was nothing he could do to fix it. “What if he’s hurt or worse…” I can’t say the word. I refuse to say it.
“Ana, where are you going?” Yev asks when my impatience gets the better of me.
“I need to make sure he’s okay. I can’t just sit around and do nothing.” When I throw open the front door of my old apartment, against the grumbled protest of Yev, I smack into a hard wall of muscle that smells as divine as his handsome face.
“Alek.” I throw myself into his arms like my nose isn’t stinging before slinging my arms around his neck.
He holds me close while snapping out orders to the group of men following him, “Pack as much as you can as fast as you can.”
“What’s going on? Why are you packing?” I stop, swallow, then try again when I realize the men only move for my things. “I’m not leaving.”
“драгоценный—”
“No, Alek! You can’t fucking come in here and tell me I’m leaving. That isn’t your right.”
The veins in his neck bulge when he shouts, “He didn’t just barter with money. He bartered with you!” He thrusts my hand at my father, who’s slowly rising from the couch with sleepy, bruised eyes. “His fucking daughter. His flesh and blood. He put you on the table, and the only way I can get you out of the agreement is by removing you from their sights completely.”
“What?” I’m too shocked to speak. Too shocked to think rationally, but I am not too shocked to realize where my anger should be directed. “You used me as a bid?” I race for my father so quickly my hand connects with his face and body for four precise whacks before Alek pulls me away from him. “I’m your fucking daughter. Your blood! I’m the only family you have left.”
“And the sole fucking reason I’m letting you live.” Alek’s growl freezes me. He means every word of his threat. My father would be dead right now if his blood tracked through the veins of any other woman but me. “But if you ever come back here, if you ever make contact with her again, I will forget the promise I made to her, and I will kill you without remorse. She was not your bargaining chip, she has never been your bargaining chip, and she will never be your bargaining chip again. I will die before I ever let a man like you degrade and demoralize her again.”