Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 70489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
I gestured toward Rafe. “I’ve got to keep this one from destroying the place.”
Rafe rolled his eyes. “So did you make the deal or what?”
“It’s done. Dimitri agreed to eighty percent of what we asked for at the original price we wanted.”
Rafe protested the deal, but I shut him down as I studied Lorenzo. “Something else happened tonight. Why did you stay longer than you meant to?”
Lorenzo shrugged. “Dimitri was busy. There were lots of other guests. I had to wait for a chance to get him alone.”
Rafe shook his head. “He was fucking salivating to talk to you about this sale. It’s the only reason he invited you. He would’ve made himself available. Tell us what else happened.”
I finally realized what was off about Lorenzo. “Where’s your tie?”
He started to reach for it but stopped himself. “I didn’t wear one.”
“That’s a lie,” Rafe said.
Lorenzo rolled his eyes. “Fine. I had a little fun at the party, and I forgot my tie when I was done.”
Rafe wanted details, but Lorenzo shook his head. “I don’t have to tell you every move I make. You know what’s up with Dimitri. We’ll get our weapons within three days. I’m going to bed.”
I grabbed his arm as he headed for the stairs, and he tried to pull free of my grip. “Let me go. I’ve had a long night.”
Rafe huffed. “I could’ve had a long night too, but I was sitting here, bored off my ass, waiting on you to get home. Now I find out you’ve been fucking some hot guy in Dimitri’s house, and I want to know who it was.”
Did my little brother think about anything but sex? “Something happened—something that’s got you worried,” I insisted. “I want to know what the fuck it is.”
Lorenzo sank down onto one of the stairs. “I fucked Nikolai, Dimitri’s son.”
“Oh my God, what were you thinking?” I yelled as Rafe yelled, “Damn, go you.”
“Rafe, shut up. This is not something to celebrate. If Dimitri finds out—”
“We’ll have to kill him,” Rafe said. “Would that be so bad?”
I did not need this. I’d just started a new semester. My research was really moving forward. I was hopefully on the brink of a significant discovery, and now we were about to go to war with the Russians. But Lorenzo wasn’t himself. This night had affected him more than he was willing to say.
Lorenzo faced Rafe. “Have we taught you nothing?”
Rafe rolled his eyes. “I know, I know, it could start a war. We could get hurt, and you think you have to be our protector.”
Our parents had died when Lorenzo was seventeen. I was twelve, and Rafe was ten. Lorenzo had taken on the role of parent, and he’d worked as hard as he could for us until, thanks to Dimitri’s father, he ended up in prison and couldn’t be there for us. He couldn’t forgive himself for that.
Lorenzo explained that Nikolai was being forced to marry Alina Ivanov, and he’d be under the control of her father, who was allegedly the head of a network that specialized in trafficking boys and young men. The marriage was basically a death sentence for Nikolai, but it was dangerous as hell for us to try to stop it. They’d do anything to protect their secrets. “We cannot get involved in their family business.”
Rafe grinned. “I think he’s already involved.”
Did he have to be such an asshole? “Could you be serious for one fucking second?”
Lorenzo spoke before Rafe could say anything else. “I fucked up tonight. I was tempted. I was angry. I wanted something, and I took it.”
“We should go get Nikolai,” Rafe said.
“No!” His harsh tone startled me and Rafe. “That’s not an option. I will not put you at risk. You two are my priority.”
He had to let go of his guilt and the idea that he needed to protect us. “We’re grown men. I wish you’d get that through your stubborn head.”
“I’m not going to argue about this. Nikolai and I had fun. I told him to find a way to get out of there if he could. I’m going to work with Remington to stop this marriage. That’s all I can do.”
“But that’s not how you wanted it to end, is it?” I asked. “You said you did it out of anger and temptation, but you like Nikolai.”
He shook his head. “He’s just a hot piece of ass. That’s all.”
He was lying. I was good at reading people, especially my brothers. Lorenzo would never take a risk like that over a guy who was just hot.
“I don’t fucking understand you,” Rafe said.
“Do you understand that if word got out about me and Nikolai, it could cause a war? It’s not even just the two of you I have to protect. I could drag the whole extended family into this.”