Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
“What about Alina? Who is she really for?”
“It’s only out of respect for your cousin that I’m not ending you here and now. Insult me or Ivanov again, and you will be sent back to your family in pieces. If you so much as look at Nikolai again, you’ll wish all I’d done was hack you apart.”
I nodded, indicating I’d heard his warning but never speaking the words. I didn’t make promises I had no intention of keeping.
What about the promise to never put your desire over the needs of your family?
I hadn’t broken it yet.
So you’re going to walk away? You’re not going to look for Nikolai later tonight?
If I had any sense, I would, but I’d been sensible for too damn long.
Later that night, I wandered outside. I desperately wanted another bourbon instead of my glass of soda water, but I knew better than to get drunk in Dimitri’s presence. He might need my family’s business for now, but I’d provoked him. If I pushed him hard enough, he might forget that Remington wouldn’t appreciate him putting hands on me. I couldn’t let my guard down until I was back at home.
I wondered where Nikolai was now. I sat on the bench in the rose garden, wishing he’d appear there again. The buzz of conversation from the house was annoyingly loud, even out here.
The party was as insufferable as I’d expected it to be. Like I’d predicted, everyone there had an agenda. They all wanted something from Dimitri or one of the other attendees. The dinner was mediocre at best. I could have done much better myself, and my cook would have blown Dimitri’s out of the water.
My car had been parked by a valet, so it would be a production to get it back. I considered walking down to Dimitri’s dock and stealing a boat. Remington’s family had a house on the lake. I could dock there.
I tipped my head back and sighed. In the past, I’d been to plenty of events that were just as tedious and didn’t feel so drained by it all. What was the matter with me? Was I just fucking sick of playing these games? Of being the model negotiator for Remington?
There was something dark inside me that I’d been keeping at bay. It wanted to come out. At that moment, I didn’t care about alliances. I didn’t care about business. I wanted to burn the world down. I wanted to take Nikolai, drag him to my car, and take him somewhere no one would bother us. I wanted to destroy him in the best possible way, and then I wanted to be alone so I could stop having to make so many fucking decisions. I wanted to release myself from responsibility to myself, to my brothers, to Remington.
But that wasn’t an option. I’d tried being irresponsible once, and the results had been fatal. It should have been me who died for my sins, but I couldn’t change the past. All I could do was keep trying to make it up to my family.
I sighed as I leaned back and looked up at the stars. How bad would it be to track Nikolai down, toy with him, give him a thrill before he was locked away with a pretend wife and a man who would treat him like an object with no feelings of his own? Would that really hurt anyone? Most of the guests were drunk off their asses by now, and Dimitri was surely busy talking to everyone who wanted to beg him for a favor.
Don’t do it.
Even as I tried to tell myself no, I stood. After catching me watching Niko, Dimitri had likely sent him to his room to keep him out of trouble. If I found him there, he wouldn’t be able to run from me, but the house was enormous. I needed a way to narrow down his location.
I looked up at the row of windows. Only one room on the second floor had lights on. I’d start there.
I entered through the kitchen. My fierce expression dared the caterers to question why I was there. I grabbed a server by the arm and asked if there was a back staircase. The man stared at me, saying nothing. “I’m getting impatient.”
That seemed to snap the man out of his trance. “Yes, sir. This way.” When he showed me, I tipped him and sent him on his way.
As I climbed the stairs, I considered my position in the house. The lit-up window had been the third from the end, which should mean the room was the third on my right once I was in the upstairs hall. When I reached the top of the stairs, a door opened, and a man stepped out, followed by a woman who was still trying to get her dress zipped back up.