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"Look after Mom. She needs you. I'll be fine."
Vlad laughs, and I can't help myself. I raise my knee sharply, digging him in the ribs, and he responds by grasping my thigh and squeezing hard.
"Do that again, and I'll tie you up and put you in the trunk. Right before I go back and kill your father for raising such a brat."
He sets me on my feet, leaning to open the passenger door, and I catch his scent. Something expensive. Cedar, tobacco, cardamom.
"You don't understand." He pushes me into the seat. "Hektor will kill us all when he finds out what you've done!"
Vlad slams the car door, cutting me off mid-panic, and climbs into the driver's seat beside me. The engine roars to life.
"Youdon't understand, Morgana." His eyes flash over my body briefly before returning to my face. "I didn't pay two million dollars to have you for one night. You're gonna marry me."
I stare at him as he turns the car around.
He's out of his damn mind.
"What the hell makes you think I'll agree tothat?"
"It's like I said—everything's for sale. You're bought and paid for. It's all above board."
"Except for the part where you threatened to kill my father?"
He shrugs. "The carrot-and-stick theory is solid. Money is the carrot, but that doesn't mean I won't wield huge fuck-off sticks when required. In my world, that's how deals are done."
"What world is that?"
"The bratva. The Russian mob. Get used to it." Vlad pulls up at the junction out of the parking lot. "Which way?"
"I don't know what you—"
Vlad glances at me, his expression stony. "Which way to Hektor?"
"You can't just—"
"Morgana," he says, his voice firm. "Tell menow."
"He has a bolt-hole in Yorkville."
5
Vlad
Morgana's red hair falls in smooth waves over her shoulder. She looks beautiful, but her getting dolled up for another man makes me want to find the fucker and pull his eyes from their sockets.
She bowled me over when she left me soaked in ice cream and her rage. No woman ever talked to me like that, and I loved it. I had to know about the enchanting girl with a Pre-Raphaelite face, slightly slutty clothes, and soulful eyes. What was her deal?
I gave her name to Arman, and he went to work. My adopted brother is excellent at tracking people down, and when he came to me a couple of hours ago and told me who Morgana was, I laughed my ass off.
My family built our fortune on the backs of idiots like George Bloom. Optimists don't realize that a leap of faith can break your back if you land too hard.
It was simple to buy George's debt and therefore own himandhis pretty daughter. He was heartbroken to lose Morgana in such a sordid way, but it's not my fault he's dumb enough to borrow from the underworld.
Of course, I could have taken Morganawithoutdoing her father a favor, but he's a civilian, so it's frowned upon. Besides, I'm asking a lot of her, and it might be less of a bind if she can console herself knowing that her parents' financial problems are over.
But Arman never mentioned a boyfriend.
"So, who is this Hektor?"
