Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 64304 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 214(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64304 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 214(@300wpm)
Just not women.
I go downstairs, and there’s two cops in the lobby standing with Sasha and the guard.
“Here he is.” Sasha gives a big smile and a wave. “You see? I’m not hiding from him.”
The female police officer narrows her eyes. “So you went into hiding after the explosion, and your husband thought you were dead? But now you’re not hiding from him?”
“I was never hiding from him. I was trying to protect him from trouble. My father was the head of the Russian mafiya, and after he died, I feared some of his men came after me for revenge.”
“Russian mafiya,” the male police officer repeats, looking us all up and down suspiciously. “What men were these?”
Sasha shrugs. “I don’t know.”
“How long have you known your wife was alive?” the female officer asks me.
“Since last night.” No point in lying.
“And you didn’t bother to notify us? Neither of you did?”
“Like I said, I was laying low. In case they were after me.” Sasha has the nerve to walk over and stand beside me like we’re a unit. She wraps an arm around me.
If it weren’t for the police, I would shove her away. Except I feel her trembling.
Aw, fuck.
I don’t want to care about that.
I don’t want to even have to try to figure out what my conniving devil of a wife is up to right now.
Is she trembling over me or over the cops?
Gah.
I grab her by the nape and yank her roughly around to kiss her hard on the mouth. Then I lift my head and look pointedly at the cops. “I’m so happy she’s alive.”
I wish she wasn’t breathless, looking up at me like she’s never going to look away.
It takes some more back and forth, and the promise of a detective following up, but the damn cops finally leave. I walk Sasha around the corner, where I pin her to the wall by the throat. “I don’t know what your game is now, caxapok, but you can stop playing it. It’s over between us.”
Her eyes fill with tears, and I muster every bit of rage I have against her to keep those glittering drops from moving me.
“Maxim, please. I just want to tell you what happened.”
I tighten my grip on her throat, just enough to shut her up. “I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to hear any of it. I don’t know what you think you proved by saying you weren’t dead, but I won’t keep you. Look for the divorce papers. Your mom will still inherit, and that way you don’t have to stay dead.” I release her and walk away.
I’m barely able to breathe from the pain slicing through my torso, but I don’t show it. I’m not going to pass out again and let her see how she ruined me.
It’s over between us. I can never fall prey to her wiles again.
Chapter 22
Sasha
“We should go to Russia,” my mother says. It’s been two days since I saw Maxim at the Kremlin, and I haven’t left the hotel room. I’m sitting by the window looking out at the street below. I alternate sitting here with pacing around the small room.
I don’t know if I’m thinking, or I’ve just shut down.
“No.”
“Please, Sasha. Be reasonable. We can’t stay here forever. Soon Ravil will figure out the hotel is still charging his credit card, and we’ll be kicked out.”
“You did this,” I snap at her. “You took away the only person who ever really cared about me!”
My mother’s eyes widen. “What are you saying? I’m the only one who ever really cared about you.”
“No.” I’m so sick of the hot tears that keep leaking from my eyes. “Maxim really cared. He listened. He supported my dreams. And now he’s terribly hurt because he thinks I tried to trick him.”
She shakes her head dismissively.
“If you want to leave this hotel, you should help me figure out how to fix this.”
“Maxim said he would file for divorce?”
I glare at my mother. She loves that little nugget because it means she’ll get my money. “I don’t want a divorce. I want Maxim.”
My mother sighs. “What about the lawyer?”
“What lawyer?”
“Isn’t Ravil’s fiancée a lawyer? Maybe she’s drawing up the papers. You could go and talk to her.”
I blink at my mother. It’s not the worst idea.
I don’t know if Lucy likes me, but she was certainly kind before. I pick up the phone and call her law firm to book an appointment.
I will make this work. I have to make this work. I’m not going to sit around passively letting people move me around the chess board like a pawn. This is my life, and I have to fight for what I want.
Maxim
I’m at the bar for the third straight night in a row when Pavel plops down beside me on a barstool. He doesn’t look at me, just examines the bottles behind the bar with a cool indifference.