Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 106541 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 533(@200wpm)___ 426(@250wpm)___ 355(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106541 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 533(@200wpm)___ 426(@250wpm)___ 355(@300wpm)
24
GHOST
I’m not surprised when Alek is the first person I lock eyes with upon exiting Katie’s room. I told him to keep an eye on her, and he will do as asked no matter how much unease my request causes.
“Send someone to her sister’s house.”
Alek takes a step back. “What did you do?”
“Send someone to her fucking sister’s house before we lose the only bargaining chip we have.”
Not waiting to see if he complies, I sprint to the far west side of the compound. Despite releasing the heaviness of my balls on Katie’s back, my legs feel the weight of concrete.
I fucked up.
I put myself first.
And now our sisters will most likely suffer the consequences of my actions.
I pause just outside my sister’s wing, confronted yet not surprised by the number of personnel outside her door. They’re no higher than low-ranked goons, but I fail to remind myself of that while removing my gun from the holster on my hip. I pop a bullet between one goon’s head when he tries to stop me from entering before the second registers my approach.
He’s dead just as fast.
“If one more bullet leaves your gun, you’ll find one in your sister’s head.” Kirill shifts his gun from me to Sofia’s temple that’s covered with sweat. She’s shuddering in the aftermath of whatever drug they forced her to take and staring blankly at her soaked-through nightgown. “We had an agreement. I don’t want any more bastard kids. She…” He glares at the blood pooled between Sofia’s legs, “… was not part of our agreement, so she…” he spits out his last word in disgust, “… was taken care of.”
He stands, aware I’d give anything to put a bullet between his brows but confident enough to know I won’t. There are thousands of men to my one, so as much as I want to get Sofia and Lera out alive, I can’t. They’ll be dead before we exit the west wing.
Fear doesn’t award me the knowledge.
Facts do.
For a man who swears he once loved my sister, Kirill treats her like dirt when he demands she clean up the mess the doctors made. “And make sure it is taken care of. I don’t want to return.”
I ball my hands so tightly my nails dig into my palms when he walks by me.
He has me clutched by the throat, and he fucking knows it.
25
GHOST
Sofia healed so well over the past four weeks you wouldn’t know she almost bled to death after a botched abortion. Kirill has no morality when it comes to daughters. His punishments are brutal and immediate, much like our father’s.
No, Kirill’s relationship with Sofia isn’t incest. She has no Bobrov blood running through her veins. She was conceived after my mother left my father for the cruel way he made her birth me since he believed the lies of his wife. He cut me out of her stomach in front of his men to make a martyr out of her, not caring that his blade sunk deeper than the sac keeping me safe.
He scarred me in the same manner Kirill did his own daughter when our brother died. He no longer wanted a child. He wanted a replacement for Milo who was killed at the hands of his enemies acting as friends, a son to follow in his footsteps.
He changed that day, and everything in our lives altered as well.
Our father and brother were killed when the Gottles sought revenge for an act that was not solely ours, and Kirill grew manic. He turned on everybody, including those he loved. But there are rules that protect him, rules that keep him safe, and it doesn’t matter how many lives he destroys, he will forever be protected by the entity that commenced his demise.
I’m feared in my own right, but since I am the spare who had to prove his lineage with DNA, I don’t have the support Kirill does. He is the leader, and I am his puppet. There’s no other truth than that.
“Why is she whining?” Kirill slams down his goblet of wine before narrowing his eyes at Lera. “She has everything she asks for, yet she still whines.”
“She is a child, Kirill. She doesn’t know—”
Kirill ends Sofia’s reply by clearing the table of dishware. It clatters to the floor with a thud, startling Sofia so much she balks. “If she does not know respect, she should be taught it.”
When he signals a goon to move for Lera, I stop him by rising to my feet. I don’t speak, but the firm harshness of my lips and vicious snarl says plenty.
If he so much as touches a hair on Lera’s head, I will kill him.
Kirill mocks me with laughter. “This is what I get for allowing you to name her after your mother.” His eyes are for me, but his words are for Sofia. “He thinks he has to save her because he failed to save your mother.”