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“We ride for my father’s estate. Once we’re there, there’s nothing my brother can do to get to us. My father has our back, he’s on our side. We will sequester ourselves in a secret quarters in the dungeon of the estate. Only my father will know where we are. He’s sent word to a priest. One loyal to my father who will not whisper a word to tip off anyone why he’s en route. We will be married by sundown.”
Married.
It was the simplest of plans, but to me it seemed like a suit of armor that was held together by gossamer threads. I’d fought so hard to regain some semblance of control over my own life and destiny, but I had no more control over how all this was to unfold than if I were bound and blindfolded.
It was hardly nine o’clock in the morning; so many things could happen between now and nighttime. So much could go wrong. And if it did, I would be ripped away from Vasile forever. I had already pleaded with Vasile a dozen times to just run away with me; we could book passage and head East, be married on a sugar-white beach in Mykos and send for my parents after.
But Vasile had told me he wouldn’t spend a life on the run with me, nor endanger my family by not being here to protect them. Not unless it was our last option to save our own skins.
I looked upward just in time to see the hawk dive to make its kill, then it disappeared from view.
I leaned back slightly from Vasile’s embrace and raised my eyes to his. He was smiling at me, looking as handsome and sexy as ever.
The intense winter morning light allowed me to see the barest hint of a dimple on his left cheek, something that I’d never seen clearly before. I touched it softly with the pad of my thumb and then summoned up the courage to ask the question I hadn’t dared ask until now: “What did you do to get your father on your side in all this?”
Vasile gave me a look that suggested that he’d rather not say.
But now was no time for more secrets. Whatever the cost had been, I needed to know.
“Please,” I said. “Please tell me. I do trust you, but this is my life too. I deserve to know.”
He pulled me close and placed a tender kiss to my forehead before saying, “I agreed to rejoin the family business.”
He what?
A wave of nausea made my knees buckle. It was as if he had punched me in the stomach. I was so shocked that it took me a moment to even name the emotion I was feeling. But soon enough I had it: betrayal, complete and total betrayal.
I pushed my way out of his embrace and lifted my furious gaze to him, feeling as if I had traded one criminal brother for another. Theirs was a terrible, dangerous, ruthless business, and I knew it was no life for me. Not now and not ever. Not with Petre and not with Vasile either.
I felt so blindsided and upended that I hardly knew what to say or how to say it. And so instead of trying to explain this wave of hurt and upset, I planted my hands on Vasile’s broad chest, pushed him away from me, and did what every animal would do when they felt trapped, scared, and in danger:
I ran.* * *He pursued me through the forbidding winter gardens, close on my heels. I took a quick left and made a break for the untamed forests beyond, but he caught up to me, tackling me and pinning me face-down against a snow drift.
The frigid ground stung my cheeks. As I clawed to get away, a layer of thawed and then refrozen snow dug painfully into my hands.
“I will not be a part of this,” I half-sobbed into the snow, thrusting my elbow into his stomach.
He groaned and released me just enough for me to get to my feet again. I was so close to being away from all this—all this fear, all this love, all this not being in control.
I wasn’t ready for any of this.
I hadn’t asked for it and I didn’t want it.
And I was right there, on the brink of getting away—the deer about to get free from a wolf—but Vasile was too big and too strong, and in a single moment he had his huge arms around me, lifting me off the ground so that my feet had nowhere to go.
Once again, the world began to close in—I could feel myself beginning to faint.
Damn it, damn it, damn it.
I sucked in big breath as Vasile’s huge arms gripped me tight. Fighting him with both hands and both feet, I did everything I could to make him let go so I’d fall to the ground and hopefully maintain my tenuous grip on consciousness.
