Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 46132 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 231(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46132 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 231(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
“With my little brother out of the way, I am free to rule the Bratva as I see fit,” he goes on. “Do not mistake me. I had love for my brother. But the heart cannot be allowed to rule in this world. A man must have his own code of ethics. I think you understand that. You kill men you have marked as evil for their deeds, and perhaps this helps you sleep at night. Me, I never leave a task unfinished, and this helps me sleep. That is why they call me Wolf. I never quit. I never stop chasing.”
I laugh grimly. “Maybe they call you Wolf because you never stop howling. Why don’t you say something that actually means something, motherfucker?”
He tuts. “Insults? I thought we were above this.”
“You thought wrong.”
I pause at the intersection, the traffic picking up a little here as it joins the road properly toward the city, not the country road we’ve been driving down. I signal and then pull out, rejoining the flow of civilization, hoping to lose myself in the anonymity of it all.
The air is laced with winter cold, a few crystalline snowflakes dancing.
“Is the girl with you?” Andrei asks a moment later.
My whole body recoils at the thought of Andrei targeting Dakota. I have to focus hard on keeping my eyes on the road, my heartbeat pulsing so heavily it sends waves of urgency all through my body.
“Why?” I snap.
He laughs delightedly. “How strange, the fierceness in your voice. Does this girl mean something to you? I assumed you merely met her by chance. I am surprised you took her, in truth. You have completed jobs in the past and never stooped to rescuing damsels …”
It’s true. Felix always taught me to drift in like smoke, do the job, and then drift out without taking anything, changing as little as possible.
But not taking Dakota wasn’t an option, not when I felt my goddamn soul quivering at the proximity of her, as though it recognized its other half.
Not when my seed flamed at the scent of her, as though it recognized its rightful home.
“Give me the girl, Damian, and we will forget you exist.”
Dakota sucks in a breath beside me. Her fear permeates the air of the car. I reach across and place a hand on her leg, squeezing briefly, but quickly have to let go when lust intrudes on the comfort and I get carnal ideas to slide further up that thick juicy beautiful thigh.
“The girl?” I say, keeping my voice casual.
“You didn’t expect that, did you?”
“You have hundreds of slaves. I thought you’d be more concerned with avenging your brother’s murder.”
“Oh, if you do not give me the girl, I will hunt you down and kill you both. I will take her in front of you and then I will slit her throat, I will slit your little cur’s throat, and then – only then – I will kill you. But all of that can be avoided. Give me Dakota Clark and you can disappear forever, just like you wished.”
The lights of other cars pass back and forth as I join the traffic of the bridge, a whole army of them, with the city rising up in glittering obelisks ahead of us. This conversation feels strange so close to the real world, away from the world of death.
“You were tracking me before I took her,” I point out. “You must’ve for your men to already be at my motel room.”
“Yes,” Andrei says. “Loose ends, you see. I knew you were going to kill Dobry this evening. It is why I sent him so much good vodka. You should be thanking me so that they’d be sloppy. But … Do you believe in fate, Damian?”
I grind my teeth from side to side, almost certain I can sense a change in Dakota’s scent.
I glance at her again.
She’s biting her bottom lip and her cheeks are pricked red, her eyes wide and staring honestly back at me, staring at me like the future mother of my children.
I never believed in fate before I met her. That’s the damn truth. But I’m not going to share that with the Wolf.
“Get to the point,” I snap.
“That girl, Dakota Clark, it is a fateful turn of events that saw you take her when you could have taken any number of slaves. It might just save your life. Dakota belongs to me, you see.”
“What? What the fuck are you talking about?” I growl, almost roaring that he’s dead wrong.
She doesn’t belong to him. She belongs to me.
Forever.
“I won’t go into details,” Andrei says, the first hints of impatience shivering into his otherwise calm tone. “It is enough for me to say that this girl is mine in every sense of the word. Even before we picked her up, she belonged to me. So return my property and you can go free.”