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I explode. “You’re in Russia? Really, Alek? Are you still there, or have you just jumped to the next country while having a fucking holiday?”
I expect a chastising comment, but I’m left with his cold rebuff that’s wounded me more than anything else I care to admit. I bite my bottom lip as I look around. It’s dark, and the only light is from the cars. River is still speaking with Igor and his men.
“A dancer, Alek? You’re chasing a dancer?” I scoff into the phone. “You didn’t even tell me about her. We tell each other everything. How could you leave me for a woman? You left me in the lurch with debts, and now I have to spread my legs to pay for them.” I hear myself and laugh.
“Wow, I never thought I’d be complaining about sex. Alek, this is fucking torture. River says he wants to fuck me to wipe your debt clean, but he won’t actually fuck me. I’m on fucking edge because I can’t sleep or eat. And I’m not being fucked! This is all your fault!”
Now I’m just rambling, maybe even going insane, as I talk into the phone as if Alek is actually listening. I hate that it offers me some kind of comfort, a luxury I’m not too familiar with. Only ever with my brother.
But River’s seriously gotten under my skin. I can’t read him or understand the pull I have toward him. I enjoy sex because of the power it gives me over men. I need to solidify that with River because he’s the only man thus far who has made me feel like my power is slipping ever so slightly.
Through the rearview mirror, I see River approaching the car, and immediately squash my thundering rage. My feelings toward him are not Alek’s fault, but it feels good to blame him anyway considering all the other shit he’s put me through lately. Now, it feels like I only have a few more moments with Alek. Even though he’s not here with me now. I know he’s somewhere out there, listening to these voice messages eventually.
“Alek, please just tell me what’s happening. I have to go because tall, dark, and brooding is walking over. Oh, by the way, I hope we don’t have anything to do with a guy named Igor because I kind of killed one of his men. Okay, bye.”
I hang up as River opens the door and sits in the driver’s seat, a cigarette hanging between his lips. I wind down my window, snatch it out of his mouth, and throw it out. “Smoking’s fucking disgusting.”
“Do you really want to push me to the edge tonight, Anya, after the stunt you just pulled?” He glowers as he twists in my direction.
I drop my bottom lip. “Wishing you didn’t splurge on those jewels for me since I’ve been such a bad girl?”
He smiles, a lethal edge to it as he grabs my cheeks and squeezes. “You keep dropping that bottom lip like that, Red, and I might be inclined to cut it off.”
I smile in return. “As if you’d fucking dare when you dream of these lips around your cock every night. And besides, need I remind you that I have a gun pointed at the back of your head? Now, fucking drive. I’m hungry and want to go home.”
River’s smile widens and then his eyes light with frightful amusement as his tattooed knuckles flex on the wheel, his one singular ring shining from the interior light.
I have the feeling he’s about to do something crazy.
I’m all for crazy.
CHAPTER 18
River
Ihave to remember that I don’t want to throw her out of this car, even if she has an attitude problem. Her smell fills the small space. It’s like she’s suffocating me without even knowing the power she has over me.
And I’m fucking livid, and not even at her, though I should be after that little stunt she pulled. I’m furious with Igor and his men. How they treated her. I didn’t say anything because I know Anya can stand on her own two feet. But it doesn’t sit right in the subtle way they threatened her.
My hands grip the steering wheel so tightly, I think I might actually leave indents of my fingers in it. I still haven’t even put the car in drive. The silence in this suffocating car is grating on my nerves after my meeting with Igor. I look in the rearview mirror, and see them laughing and enjoying their cigarettes in what was a successful business deal.
Do I give a shit about forty million? Not really. Not if it means Igor might be tempted to come back to New York and find Anya for some vengeance for his man.
I’m not thinking clearly, but this woman does something crazy to me.
“Still want to take me on your second business meeting?” she dares to ask. Always pushing me. Forever trying to get on my nerves. And it’s fucking working.
What’s forty million? I paid almost that just to have a taste of her. I can let a forty million deal go if I know it means no one will come after her. She can handle herself. I know that. But I can’t stop my raging possessiveness.
“How good is your boy’s shot?” I growl out.
A promiscuous smile reaches her lips. “The best.” And a silent plan forms between us.
“Leave Igor to me,” I say. Kicking open the car door and opening my trunk, I pull out a rifle.
Michael is going to chew my ass out for this, and I don’t fucking care. He doesn’t make the rules. I do.
The first security guy drops to his knees with a clean shot in his forehead. In my peripheral, I see Anya’s arm out the window, her hand in the shape of a gun. When she pulls her thumb down like a trigger, the next guy drops to his knees.
