Page 38
“Even men like Grisha need to sleep occasionally.”
The clock is ticking on Daniel Reed. The longer we wait, the more time he has to plan being somewhere else when shit goes down. The only thing in our favor is that his ego will make him complacent, make him believe that he’s untouchable, and he might just stick around long enough for us to find him. Because I have no doubt that he’ll talk when we do. Daniel Reed is a fucking coward who is using his ex-wife as a shield to save his own skin.
My jaw is so tight my back teeth hurt.
Vera holds my gaze for a long beat, studying me before she climbs into the front passenger seat. I close the door behind her, walk around the car, and get in.
She stares out of the windshield as I start the engine. This close to her, my pulse is racing. All I can think about is putting my hand on her thigh, kissing her mouth, fisting her hair and listening to her gentle whimpers as she kisses me back. No one else has ever had this effect on me, and not touching her is the kind of torture nothing can ever prepare a man for.
I put the car into first gear and pull onto the empty road.
“What will happen to Daniel?” she asks, still staring straight ahead.
Something in my chest lurches. Does she still have feelings for him? This isn’t a scenario I considered because Vera is worth so much more than a slippery snake like Daniel Reed. But now the idea that she might try to protect him after he sold her out to Gennady Zorin makes my knuckles turn white on the steering wheel.
“We ask questions. He answers them.”
“Will he be hurt?”
“Not if he answers.”
“And what if they find out he talked to you?”
“I don’t know.”
I sense her studying my profile, and I keep my eyes on the road ahead. “He sold photographs of you to them, Vera. Why do you care?”
She goes tense, her hands gripping the sides of the passenger seat. Finally, she says, “Because if you hurt him, that’s something else I have to learn to live with.”
Two things hit me at once, right where it hurts in the pit of my stomach. Firstly, I still feature in her future. And secondly, she doesn’t want anything that happens to her ex-husband to come between us.
I pry one hand away from the steering wheel and find hers, and my heart skips when she doesn’t pull away.
“You have my word that I won’t hurt him. Unless he tries to hurt you. In which case, I will make sure that he can never come near you again. And that is a promise.”
I leave my hand on hers while she goes quiet.
“You don’t have to go all caveman on me,” she says, her voice softening like a warm cookie.
I feel the tension drain from my shoulders just a little. “You think I’m a caveman?”
She smiles, and warmth floods my chest. She’s beautiful when she smiles, and I never want to be responsible for taking that away from her.
“Yes, but minus the loincloth and the wooden club.”
“That could be arranged,” I say.
“Do I get to take photographs?” The amusement in her voice is unmistakable.
“No. It’ll be for your eyes only.”
She rolls her hand over the seat and entwines her fingers with mine, palms touching, her thumb rubbing my wrist. I haven’t realized how starved of contact I’ve been until the blood starts pumping around my veins and hits directly between my legs. I shift in my seat and focus on the road.
“Let me speak to him first,” she says. “He needs to tell me why he’s doing this.”
“I… That isn’t a good idea.” That’s the understatement of the fucking century. It goes against everything Anton and Maxim ever taught me, but I also know that I’ll agree to it if it’s what Vera wants. “He’ll run straight to them, and you’ve seen how easily he lies.”
“Maybe a warning is all they need to back off,” she says softly.
