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“Take the word of an outsider looking in. I heard your men disrespecting you, and he joined in.”
“Of course, you did.”
“Where do you think I heard it?” I snap, half sitting to look at him. It’s a mistake because he’s completely naked and drying off with a small towel. He catches me watching and smirks. I growl, flopping back down and staring up at the ceiling. “I need you. I love you.” I repeat their words, mocking him as they did. “They were taking the piss out of you when you visited her grave and I was in the car.”
“Excuse me if I don’t believe you, suka. Maybe he’s right. Maybe you’re not worth the trouble.” He grabs a pillow from the bed and stomps around to my side, dropping the pillow beside the bed. “You will lay there from now on.”
I frown. “You want me to lie on the floor?”
“Yes.” He pulls me by the arm, and I land with a thump. “Goodnight, suka.” He proceeds to climb into bed. I sigh, straightening the pillow like that will somehow make the hard tiles more comfortable, and I lie down. I’ve slept in worse places.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
IVAN
I’ve been fucking up business meetings all day, and as we leave the last one for the day, Maxim turns on me. “You need to get rid of her,” he snaps. “She’s taking too much of your head space and business is suffering.”
“I know,” I mutter.
“So, what’s stopping you?”
I shrug. I don’t have the answers he wants to hear. The truth is, I like her. I live for the way she backchats me, how she pokes me for a rise. She reminds me so much of Lara, it’s like I have her back, and I hate the thought of not having that feeling, that kick of energy she provides.
I scrub my hands over my face. Before Lara, before love, I wouldn’t have thought twice about slitting Grace’s throat the second I found her in that alleyway with her thieving friend. She wouldn’t have had a chance to speak my name never mind sleep on my bedroom floor. “She told me she heard you laughing about me with the men.”
He laughs angrily. “Jesus, Ivan, she’s in your head. Listen to yourself. Now, you’re taking her word over mine, your friend? I’ve been by your side from the beginning. This girl was a nobody, some tramp on the street. She’s made her way into your home, your bed, and now, she’s trying to rip the organisation apart.”
I sigh. “I know you’re right. I’ll deal with her.”
He shakes his head. “No, let me.”
“I should do it,” I mutter, frowning as my heart twists. This day was always going to come. And now I know the truth, I shouldn’t prolong it. “I want her to pay,” I say firmly. “For killing Lara. That’s why I’ve kept her around.”
“I want to believe you, boss, but I’ve seen this before with Lara. You’ve got that look in your eye.”
“I was confused,” I snap, “missing Lara. Grace is nothing to me. We’ll make her suffer and send her away. I know men who would pay a fortune for her.” My heart slams painfully in my chest with each word.
“So, no baby?” he asks.
I shake my head. Grace has made it clear she won’t have sex with me unless I force it. A few years ago, I would have taken her up on the challenge, but each time I build myself up to do it, I talk myself out of it.
“Go away for the weekend, Ivan. Let me deal with her. When you return, we can put her on the boat together. Show her and the men you’re not a fool.”
Grace looks alarmed as she watches me pack a bag. “Please, Ivan, don’t leave me here with Maxim.”
“I have business to attend to.”
“He’s going to hurt me.”
“You killed Lara.”
She cries in frustration. “I didn’t! I don’t know how many ways you need me to say it, but that purse was planted in my bag.”
“Not this again.”
“Don’t you think it a little odd that you’ve spent almost a year trying to find out the truth, and I end up here, in your house, with her purse? That’s a pretty fucking amazing coincidence.”
“Stop talking,” I mutter, throwing more clothes into the bag.
