Total pages in book: 34
Estimated words: 32402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 162(@200wpm)___ 130(@250wpm)___ 108(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 32402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 162(@200wpm)___ 130(@250wpm)___ 108(@300wpm)
She stormed toward him, her hands clenched, and he expected her to throw the sandwich across the room. If she did, then that was on her, not him. He would still enjoy his own, and she could go without.
Only, Jane didn’t throw it across the room. Instead, she pulled out her chair and slowly lowered her ass into it. He watched as she clenched and opened her hands, then picked up her package and unwrapped it.
“What did you get me?” she asked.
“Chicken salad on white. I didn’t know if you had any allergies.”
“This is good.” She took a bite out of her sandwich, chewed, and rolled her eyes.
“Care to share the eye roll?”
“It’s good. I should know. Everything you seem to have is good.”
He laughed. “It’s not cheap.”
She shook her head. “It beats a peanut butter sandwich.”
“Is that what you usually had?” he asked.
“Most days, or jam.” She shrugged. “You eat what you can afford.”
“Which makes me wonder why you’re attempting to run from this,” Alexey said.
“You know about that?” she asked.
“My men keep me informed of everything that is going on.”
She sighed. “I just ... I’m not used to this, okay? I’m not used to someone looking out for me, or any of this. Your life is completely different from mine.”
“However, your life has pulled you into mine. That night, you should have left, and nothing would have happened.”
“You’d be dead.”
“But Frank Morello would be alive, and no one would be coming for you.” He didn’t know that for certain. Technically, if she had witnessed Frank kill him and Vincent got ahold of the security footage, she might be in the same position she was now. The only difference, she would be dead, because he hadn’t come to rescue her.
“They would if they knew I had seen it all and feared me going to the cops,” Jane said. “I could already be dead.”
She did surprise him.
“Exactly, only you’re not, because I am keeping you safe. He’s put a hit out on you, Jane. That means your life is in my hands. If you think you can beat an assassin or a bounty hunter, or anyone who would like to profit by several hundred thousand bucks, then go ahead, leave. I guarantee you wouldn’t survive the night. I’m offering you a chance to survive right now.”
“You don’t need to do that,” she said.
“I owe you my life. A life for a life. I’ll deal with Morello, and I’ll keep you alive.”
“What do I have to do?” she asked, after a minute’s silence.
“Everything I tell you to, to keep you safe. Do you think you can do that?” he asked. “That includes no more sneaking around or attempting to escape.”
She laughed. “Okay, fine. I will do that. I can do that.”
“Good. Now, eat your fucking sandwich.”
Chapter Four
One week later ... two weeks later ... three weeks later ... one month gone.
Two months gone.
Jane rolled out of bed, made her way toward the calendar and struck off another day. They were now moving into the third month that she had been living in Alexey’s apartment.
She had not seen the outside world once in all those months. That was fine, though. Alexey had been able to stop her from going stir-crazy, Jane believed. She cleaned his apartment, because he no longer trusted the cleaning crew. The first week of her staying with him had resulted in at least one cleaning lady attempting to kill her.
That had been her second kill in her life. The woman had a knife and kept attacking her. She hadn’t expected Jane to fight back. She did get a couple of additional cuts that had to be treated by Alexey’s doctor. This did not show she would be able to take care of herself outside of his apartment. So, cleaning ladies were cancelled.
Nor were they allowed to order takeout food. She had ordered herself Chinese food, because she had been wanting some delicious noodles. She never got the chance to order takeout because it was expensive, but Alexey had said she could have anything she wanted.
One of Morello’s goons had dressed as a delivery driver, and before he’d even handed her the delivery, he had his hands wrapped around her throat. Thankfully, Alexey’s men had been there and killed him before he could kill her. She did get stabbed with a knife, which had been painful. So, takeout was now ordered, collected, and the cooking process was watched by one of Alexey’s men.
Jane didn’t want to go to that much trouble. Instead, she got a few cookbooks and decided to start cooking. It was a lot more fun than warming up packet noodles, and it did taste good. Alexey also insisted on tasting her food.
The first lot of noodles she attempted were not good, as she had burnt most of them to the bottom of the wok. That had been next to impossible to clean. She’d been tempted to throw the wok out; however, she gave it a long, hard soak, then researched how to clean and deal with woks. Since then, it had been a breeze. She knew how to cook, but she now preferred to follow recipes.