Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 48709 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 244(@200wpm)___ 195(@250wpm)___ 162(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 48709 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 244(@200wpm)___ 195(@250wpm)___ 162(@300wpm)
I let his words settle into me, blooming and spreading their warmth outward.
There’s nothing else to do except lean against him and think.
Think about Uncle Nick.
Think about Damien, about this new step in our…our what, relationship?
And think about what I’m going to do when he kisses me again, when he wants more, I’ll have to tell him the truth.
CHAPTER
THIRTEEN
Damien
I sit in the private room with Liliana and Nick. Nick sits in the chair, his leg stretched out in front of him, his arm in a cast.
He looks beaten up, but there’s still some fight in his expression. His eyes are hard, and his lips have a firm set.
Liliana stands at the window, her back to us. Even now – and this really does make me a beast – I have to focus not to let my gaze move to her hips, to shamelessly indulge in the fabric hugging onto her ass.
It’s doubly difficult now that I know she feels the same.
At least to some extent.
I turn away, meeting Nick’s eye, hoping he doesn’t notice. But even if he did, what’s the harm? He’s going to find out one day. When I marry her and she has my children.
But not now.
“Are we okay talking business in front of Liliana, Mr. Dovlatov?” Nick asks.
“You can call me Damien,” I say, without planning to.
It’s not a courtesy I offer to anybody except for Max, and especially not to a Cartel man. Or ex-Cartel. But it feels odd, him calling me that when I’m so close to his niece. We might be family one day.
No, not might be. We will be.
“If she doesn’t mind,” I say, waving a hand.
“It’s fine,” Liliana says, arms crossed over her middle, I can see her fingers clawing around to her back.
Nick looks up at me, his expression tight. He looks somehow diminished in the hospital gown, out of his leather jacket and jeans.
“I’m sorry, Mr…I mean Damien. I shouldn’t have trusted him. I’ve known him for years. But it was a stupid mistake.”
“What were you trying to find out?” I ask.
“If there was any talk in the Cartel about what happened at the party, that’s all. I didn’t expect those bastards to jump me. I guess all that talk about my military background was just that – talk.”
I walk over and sit next to him. Liliana turns, studying us both, her eyes so filled with emotion it’s difficult to decipher.
“You made a mistake. You don’t have to beat yourself up about it. It happens, Nick.”
“At least they didn’t kill me,” he says, shoulders slumping.
“They know better than to make a move like that. They know what it would mean.”
I cut myself off when I realize what I’ve said. I was just trying to make him feel better, but I should’ve been cautious with my words.
What it would mean.
As if I have the power to stop the Cartel whenever I want.
Like the last war, which ended with his niece's wrist being tattooed and this man’s brother dead.
He looks at me sharply – he caught it too – but then visibly lets it go. It’s as though he doesn’t want to get into all that messiness with Liliana listening.
“What’s your next move?” Nick asks. “If I can ask that.”
“It’s time to bring this out into the open,” I say. “I’ll have to meet with Gabriel, a sit-down, where we’ll talk terms. This is getting out of hand. There are too many pieces at play. We need to clear the board. I can’t tell you specifics, Nick. I’m sorry.”
He shakes his head. “I’m lucky you’re not putting a bullet in my head.”
Liliana gasps, and I clench my teeth. “We’re not them, Nick.”
“What about Uncle Nick? Are they going to get away with it?” Liliana says, pacing across the room, stopping just short of us. “So what? Anybody can beat him up as long as they pay us?”
“Liliana,” Nick says softly.
“No.” Liliana marches over, all sassy, making me want to kiss her all over again. Not that I’ll ever stop wanting that. “It’s a fair question.”
“The alternative is I hurt the men who hurt Nick. Nick was sneaking around – no offense.”
Nick laughs gruffly.
“Gabriel, in our rules, was justified in what he did. If I were to attack him for beating up a Cartel man, I wouldn’t be justified. So he’d be justified in reacting to my unprovoked attack, as he sees it.”
“It makes my head spin,” Liliana whispers. “I don’t understand how any of this is fair.”
“Fair,” I repeat, laughing darkly.
Nick meets my eye and shakes his head. He’s seen enough in his military and Cartel life to know how desperately hopeless that statement is.
“It’s never going to be fair, Liliana,” Nick says.
“How can you say that?” she rages, my woman all filled with passion and the need to make the world a better place.