Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 94640 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94640 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
The man clicks his tongue and takes out a gun. He points it at my brother's head.
"That's a shame now, isn't it?" he says. "I would've thought your loyalty lay with your family. After all, isn't that what you promised your mother?"
My heart beats so fast I’m dizzy. He wants me to go back as if nothing happened, spy on my husband, and then feed him information in exchange for my brother?
Why do I have to make a choice? I don't know what to do.
Wait.
“How do you know what conversation I had with my mother?"
"Lass," he says with a wicked grin, "I know a lot more about your family than you think I do. Now tell me. Are you going back and playing the spy, and all will be as it was before? I'll step away, and you’ll give me what I need, and no one—not Eli or Stefan or even your precious husband will be harmed.”
A shiver races down my spine. Yet. No one will be harmed yet.
"Then you go back to your man. Pretend everything is normal. Should come naturally to you, shouldn't it?"
I shake my head.
"You're gonna run in and say that Ophelia texted you, and when you came out here, she was nowhere to be found. But surprise! Here's Eli—the fucking traitor. Come back to haunt you." He cocks his head to the side. "Now, do we have a deal, darlin’?” he drawls.
He wags a finger in my direction.
"I can already see the wheels turning. You're thinking you can give me lip service, go back inside, and take your brother with you, aren’t you? And you won't answer to me."
He pulls up a tablet and smashes at the screen with one long, inked finger.
"But you see this, lass? That is your bestie, sleeping like a baby.” An image of Ophelia in bed, her hands under her chin, fills the screen. “Whatever will happen to her if you dream of defying me? Don't think I have it in me? Maybe you haven’t heard of my reputation.”
Oh god.
I have no choice, do I?
I have to go back… I have to go back and pretend that everything's fine and then feed him information.
I need to stall to get my bearings. “What kind of information do you want?" I ask him. "It's not like I'm privy to everything—"
He chuckles low.
“Course y’are. The Kopolov family aren’t sexists, now, are they? They share their info freely with men and women alike. It’s a feather in Rafail’s cap he taught his sisters how to fight.”
When I don’t deny it, he chuckles again. “I’ll use your pretty little friend to give me the directions I need. I’ll hack her phone. You'll be receiving text messages from me.” I stare. So that’s how he did it. “Now, darlin’. Do you see this video here?" he says.
The first flash of the screen shows me on the steel table in the bakery, Semyon in between my legs.
My cheeks flame.
"Now, now," he says, shaking his head, hitting pause. "I haven't watched the whole thing. I’m a gentleman, don't you know?"
Sure he is.
"You agree, like a good little girl, and I'll delete this right now and every record I have of it. Now, darlin’, do we have a deal?"
"What's in this for me?"
"For you?" He gets to his feet, all trace of humor gone from his face. He spreads his hands wide, a mockery of generosity. "I'll let you live. And your father. And your brothers.”
I stare into the darkness, torn. There has to be a way out of this. There has to be.
I want to scream. I'm silently begging for someone to come—Semyon, Rafail, Yana, anybody—but I was the one who got myself out here. I was the one who hid from all of them. And no one's coming to save me.
Maybe that's the crux of it, isn't it? No one's coming to save me.
I have to save myself. I have to save my family. And I'm not going to betray the Kopolov.
"Three," he says with a wicked grin, cocking his gun.
"Two."
He whistles low under his breath as if he can't wait to pull the trigger and end my brother's life.
"Okay, okay! I'll do what you say. Please, don't hurt him."
His low, dark chuckle fades into the night. And then—he's gone. Vanished. As if he waved a wand and teleported magically.
I'm alone. My brother is slumped against a bench. And I have to get help.
I run to Eli. I want to shake him and hug him, but the first thing I do is check his pulse to make sure he's breathing. My fingers find his wrist, and I hold my breath until the flutter of his heartbeat beneath them makes me cry out.
"Eli! Oh my god, Eli, what happened?"
If my mother could see him now…
"Wake up," I say, shaking him, but he doesn't budge. "Please, Eli. Please—wake up."