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LUKA
I open my eyes a crack, giving way to the massive thundering between my temples. I squeeze them shut again and clutch both sides of my skull, rolling onto my back with a loud groan.
Jesus, how much vodka did I drink last night?
As if fucking Natasha six ways from Sunday wasn’t enough to numb the toxic thoughts looping through my mind.
I slide my hand over the mattress next to me. My eyes fly open when the rumpled bed sheet is the only thing my fingers graze. I immediately feel the loss.
Where the hell is she? If she’d opened any of the doors, the sounding alarms would have woken the dead. Besides, after what happened between us last night…fuck. The last thing I think she’d want to do is run away.
A thin stream of light filters in through the blinds. I squint at the shock of brightness, flip away from the window, and bury my face in her pillow. Her lightly perfumed scent still clings to the fabric. The pillow is still warm. She hasn’t been gone for that long.
Sleep evaded me for the better part of the night, and I spent hours tossing, turning, and evidently drinking to calm the rage coursing through me. Splintered memories come rushing back with the force of a swirling curl of a wave pummeling the shore.
Boris Vetrov showing up at the wake with that envelope which is still sealed because part of me really doesn’t know if I want to see what’s inside.
My asshole brother Taras passing judgment on me for my past indiscretions, reckless choices, and my inability to lead the family as a result. I needed to hear that like I need a bullet to the brain.
And then the standoff with Dmitri and Denis and the threats they hurled at me.
I cover my face with my hands and let out a loud groan.
That envelope is burning a hole through the top of the nightstand.
I have no idea when it was written or what’s inside.
What if it confirms Taras’ suspicion about Dmitri’s family working with Ivan Resnov to decimate our family name?
What the fuck happens then?
I know exactly what he’d say in that case.
“You need to kill Natasha as a show of strength, to let her father know what he stands to lose if he tries to start a war against us.”
And I can’t deny that he’d probably be right in saying that.
Unfortunately, I also can’t deny, much as I’d like to, that I’m in love with Natasha. It started out as a desperate revenge plot that over time morphed into obsession.
For months, I couldn’t breathe properly until I saw her moving through her daily routine and I was there for every minute — watching, planning, and fantasizing.
Ironically, I fell hard for the woman I intended to kill…the same woman I now know I can’t live without. How the hell can I tear into that envelope and find out that I may not ever have her?
Dima said I need to marry her to save the family, but maybe he didn’t know about what was inside the envelope. Hell, maybe he didn’t know the envelope existed at all. Boris said it was supposed to be delivered to me, not Dima, if something happened to my dad.
I slap my hand on top of the envelope and slide it off the nightstand at the same time my cell phone pings.
Saved by the ringer.
“Nik, what’s up?”
“Doesn’t sound like you are,” Nikolai says. “But you need to wake the hell up now.”
I pull myself to a seated position and hunch over so that my head falls cleanly into my free hand, ready for the bad news I’m sure is coming. “Why?”
“Taras told me his little theory. What do you think? You buying into that shit? Did Dmitri fuck us? And does he have Val?”
I lift my head from my hand and scrub it down the front of my face. “I don’t know. I guess it’s possible.” My bleary eyes fall to the envelope in front of me on the bed. There’s only one way to find out.
