Page 39 of The Promise

Shit.

Roman fell back in his seat with a thump, his hand cupping his chin and under his throat.

Maxim Yazov was dead.

Had the plot fallen through?

Did his warning come too late?

Roman took a second before he spoke—he wasn’t sure where his feelings fell on the news of Maxim’s death, and he didn’t owe the man anything. There was also someone else in the equation who may feel very differently when she learned her father was gone.

“Things just changed,” Roman said, drawing his father’s gaze to his.

Demyan nodded once. “Yes, it has. And not in a good way for us. You can be sure that Leonid and Dima are scrambling to handle the situation in their favor—just like they intended. However, that distraction isn’t going to last long, Roman, and very soon they’ll come looking for that girl you’re hiding in your hotel room.”

Roman hoped it was a slip of the tongue—that his father didn’t actually keep tabs on which room Karine spent last night in.

“You’ll be dead in weeks. So will she,” Demyan added after a moment. “You’ll have very little time once they figure out where she is, son.”

He didn’t need the goddamn reminder.

Roman’s foot tapped a nervous beat against the tile. “Vermont. Our lodge. Did you even hear me mention it, or—”

Demyan dragged in a hard breath, shooting Roman a look that quieted him as the waitress from earlier returned with an armful of topping options that she scattered across the table.

“Five more minutes for the pancakes, guys.”

“Perfect,” Roman replied with a tight smile. “Thanks.”

Once she was gone again, Roman waited for his father to speak first.

“Maybe the outside will do her good,” Demyan finally said.

Fuck.

Really?

Roman honestly hadn’t expected Demyan to give him permission to use the property, deep within the Vermont wilderness, hundreds of acres of private, raw land only accessed by two roads. Both gated, and protected. Powered by gas and solar power generators, weekly trips to a nearby town would provide pretty much everything they needed as they might need it.

But it was precious to his family, and he knew that, too. A safe haven they had used for years when the times called for it. No one except family and his father’s most trusted men—those that Demyan chose to protect his wife, or himself, his kids—had knowledge or details of the place.

“The long walks and the lake,” his father said with a shrug, “always helped me.”

Right then felt like the proper time to give his father the other news.

“I’ve found someone—a doctor for her.”

“Oh?”

“Nothing a bit of bribery—or blackmail—can’t make work, I guess.”

Roman might be trying some attempt at being the good guy where Karine was concerned, but he still had to be who he was at the end of the day to make shit work. He could never be a saint.

Demyan pointed at his son. “And it’ll put some distance between the two of you.”

Roman hadn’t considered that.

Not yet.