Although the desire to hunt is pumping through my body hard and fast, I can’t act on it. I have to settle a critical matter before I can get lost in the deadliest drug I’ve ever sampled.
When my hands are on Justine, she strips my insecurities as quickly as she does my anger, but I refuse to let that happen. Not until she knows the rules and how far I’ll go to protect her.
“You can’t go home,Ahren. It isn’t safe.” I keep my tone stern yet understanding.
Justine’s unique green-blue eyes snap to mine. The apprehension in them weakens my arrogance a bit, but not enough for my campaign to lose its steam.
“Let’s not do this now, okay, Nikolai? It’s your birthday. Any discussions about my return home can wait a few more hours.”
“No,Ahren.” I follow her into our giant walk-in closet. “It’s not my birthday for another two weeks, but even if it were today, nothing is being saved for tomorrow—because there is nothing to discuss. You’re not leaving Vegas. No negotiation needed.”
Justine takes on the fighting stance I fell on the knife for long before her beautiful face. I can tell from the apprehension in her eyes that she wants to delay our argument for a few more hours, but the fire in her gut is too intense to ignore.
“You didn’t have any issues shipping me back to Hopeton when it suited you—”
“That’s right: when it suited me.” My voice is nowhere near as calm as hers; it’s wilder and more strained. “Now doesn’t suit me.”
Her teeth grit as she struggles not to throw her hands into the air. “What about the numerous trips you’ve taken the past year? You’ve been all over the globe without me.”
“Because you were here, with Roman—safe. They weren’t vacations,Ahren. I was working.”
I’ll never see those trips as a chore, though. They were more a requirement than anything, a prerequisite to the pledge I made to Justine twelve months ago. I told her every man who bid on her would pay for his insolence. I’ve kept my word. Thirteen men have now dwindled down to two. If news of Maddox’s release hadn’t altered my plan of attack, the final man would have been dealt with by the end of this week.
Although I vowed to personally deal with every man on the list Rico supplied me last year, one name will forever remain: my brother, Dimitri. Without his help, I may have never located where Vladimir had taken Justine. That alone will spare him the wrath of my blade.
I had once hoped when my list was depleted, the tight reins I’ve had on Justine the past twelve months would slacken. Regrettably, with every curve in this industry comes a whole new set of challenges.
Before we were interrupted by Rico and Blaire checking if Justine was okay, Justine mentioned Maddox was released because the woman he was accused of murdering was arrested. If that’s true, an entirely new set of rules have been brought into play, ones I’d rather die from than abide by.
Col only issued Justine a pardon from her punishment because Maddox pledged to do anything he wished. Col not only needed a woman to permanently disappear, he also needed it to appear as if she was killed by a member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Col died years ago, but if Maddox didn’t fulfill his pledge, Justine is still in debt to the Petrettis. Even though Petretti blood runs in my veins, I’ll never be a Petretti. They’re my enemy, meaning not only is my queen on their radar, they also own her. Just the thought has the black veins around my heart resurging stronger than ever.
“Maddox may be walking out of prison in a few days,Ahren, but he is far from free. I don’t want you anywhere near him until the shit stops hitting the fan from his release.”
Justine glares at me, pretending she hates my somewhat manic protectiveness. It’s a woeful waste of time. I know she fuckin’ loves it. Her confidence has grown tenfold the past twelve months, and although some of her new boldness can be attributed to the role she’s taken on at the Popov compound, most of it is accredited to me.
Can you imagine the relief that comes from knowing you have a man confident and brave enough to protect you? She knows I’d slit the throats of a thousand men before I’d let anyone touch her, so she has nothing to fear.
I’m not so lucky.
Why do you think Roman tracks her every move? I'm not a pedantic asshole who wants to gouge out the eyes of any man who dares look at her with interest; I'm keeping my greatest asset safe. Before Justine entered my life, I had nothing to lose. Now I have everything, and the odds are even more stacked against me.
“When things settle down, you can travel to Hopeton, but until then—”
“He’s my brother, Nikolai,” Justine murmurs in disbelief as her wild eyes dart between mine.
“And you are my queen!” I hiss back in Russian, my anger reaching a point it hasn’t seen in over twelve months, fueled by both panic and fury. “That means I should rank more highly to you than him.”
“Nikolai. . .” She stops, then breathes deeply, aware her actions are also not her own. We’re two people fighting to stay together in a world determined to keep us apart.
Although Justine will never say it, I'm confident her family believes she's only in Vegas to have Maddox's conviction quashed. Now that it’s been achieved, her father's already numerous requests for her to return home will double. They have no idea about the life she has created here with me. They know of me, but the industry I'm in, what Justine does for my crew, and the target our relationship placed on her back are concealed with fancy titles and legal talk. They're unaware how far into hell Justine traveled for me, much less how far I'll go to protect her.
Family or not, no one will be spared my blade if they come between us.
I stop clenching and unclenching my fists when Justine murmurs, “This isn’t my family versus yours, Nikolai. It’s just. . .”
“What,Ahren? You don’t want them to know you sleep in the same bed as a liar, thief, and a murderer? That you’re ashamed of the life you’ve created here—with me?”
