Page 133 of The Billionaire Who Saved My Cat From The Mafia

“Honestly, I had my heart set on a B-52 Bomber,” Finn mumbles.

“Hangar’s too small for a B-52,” Evander says shaking his head.“And for real, I have no idea what I’m even looking at right now.”

“What the absolute fuck is this?”Cal asks.“Our plans called for a transport helo, not… whatever this is.”

“This beauty is my latest acquisition,” Declan explains, a shit-eating grin on his face.“Custom made to my specs.Extras that you couldn’t even come up with in your wildest dreams.You can thank me later.”

We walk toward it.The whole aircraft is coated in a dull matte finish of digitized camo print in grays, blacks, and blues.If it weren’t sitting in the middle of the pad with hangar lights shining directly on it, I don’t think we’d have even seen it.

Which is the whole point.

That said, it’s a shit-load smaller than any military chopper I’ve ever seen.

“What specs?”Finn demands.“When you said ‘toy’, I didn’t think you meant from the fucking toy store.Is this the actual Barbie Dreamhouse helicopter?”

Declan clutches at his chest.“You wound me, sir!Mavis may be small, but she’s mighty.And she is one mean cunt.You better believe me when I say she’s themeanestcunt there is.”

“Enough jacking off,” I say.“Let’s mount this cunt and zap us some Russians.”

CHAPTER 65

Frankie

I laugh out loud.

It’s amazing what a body can do just before it dies.Like laugh.

Because I see it so clearly.In these last moments, as I teeter between life and death, the clarity is funny.

The stupidity of accepting Niko’s offer to buy me a drink.How clueless I must have been to agree to a second date.And dating him exclusively?What the fuck was I thinking?

I just fell into it.I let him buy me shit and take me places, and all the while I was telling myself that it was just some harmless fun.I don’t even remember the first time I let him get a taste of control over me.Or the second time.But by the time I woke up and realized he’d been stealing a little more control every day, in pieces so tiny I barely noticed, it was too late.

But that’s nothing compared to the stupidest single decision I’ve ever made in my life.

I ran away from Special K.

In the heat of the moment, I believed he couldn’t possibly protect meandhis family at the same time.That the task was beyond any one man’s abilities, and even the combined skills of all five brothers.

I didn’t accept what he offered me.His protection.His care.His love.

If I could be gifted with one extra minute of life, I’d tell Special K how sorry I am.I’d tell him that I love him with everything in me, and that knowing him was the finest experience of my life.

And there it is, in sparkling clarity.The knowledge that I ran away from my shot at a happily-ever-after.

I’m about to be snuffed out.My life will come down to a total waste, to a heap of trash that a Russian mobster is about to dispose of somewhere—the lake, a back-alley dumpster, the side of a remote highway.

Ridiculous.

I laugh, again.

The sound seems to make Niko even angrier, which I didn’t think was possible.Because the dude’s been extremely angry.The bull-snorting-fire kind of angry.And it’s all been directed at me.

I’m lying on my side on the stone floor, still reeling from the last punch.

At first, I assumed my nose was running, but when I reached up to my face, I pulled back a hand smeared with bright red blood.This asshole punches hard, too, no pulling back because I’m a woman.

Not Nikolai Koslov.