Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 93506 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 468(@200wpm)___ 374(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93506 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 468(@200wpm)___ 374(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
Konstantin grabs that hand and interlinks his arm with hers as he leads her to the stairs. “Don’t waste your breath on the likes of him, Mother. I will talk to my aunts and uncles…”
He continues offering vague consolations and everything someone like Yulia wants to hear. Before they disappear up the stairs, he subtly casts a look in my direction.
It’s brief, almost unnoticeable, but there’s that soft edge of my little brother who always tried to shield me and Karina from his mother’s toxic favoritism.
That side of Konstantin was supposed to be long dead, so why the fuck—
“Did you see that? Did you see that?” Karina asks with contagious excitement. “Kosta stopped her for us!”
“Don’t be so sure. He’s too far up his own ass to do anything for us.”
She swats me on the shoulder. “Don’t talk like that. He was really worried about you when you got shot and visited every day. Well, every day until you woke up, because he knew you’d be an asshole if you saw him.”
“He was probably spying for Yulia.”
“Stop it, Kirill. Just stop it. If you’re suspicious of people all the time, how are you ever going to be happy?”
What the fuck is happy?
Maybe happiness is reaching the top. Being so far above people that they fall and splinter to pieces if they ever attempt to get near me.
I don’t answer Karina, though, as we step out of the house. She’s about to tell me about a book she’s reading—which is usually what she talks about with this much enthusiasm—but stops herself when we’re faced with a small commotion.
My jaw clenches, and my wound burns as I stare at none other than Lipovsky. She’s standing by the main entrance wearing a dark gray suit and a blue button-down. Her hair is styled back, and her expression is solemn, cold, and, most of all, determined.
I want to grab her by the throat like I did over a week ago when she dared to demand to talk to me.
But this time, if I choke her, I can’t guarantee that I won’t accidentally kill her. Just the thought of her lover and her betrayal turns me into a raging volcano.
I don’t let it show on my face, but the fire is splintering me on the inside.
“You can’t be here, Sasha.” I hear Yuri whisper to her in a kind voice. “If Boss finds out—”
“I will kill you,” I finish for him.
Yuri and Lipovsky straighten. Her expression softens, but only for a moment, and then it’s closed off as she steps forward. “I want my previous position back.”
My eyes lock on her face. “That won’t be happening.”
“I’m not a weapon caretaker. I’m a sniper and a bodyguard. I demand my post back.”
“You think you have the right to demand anything from me, Lipovsky?”
Her spine jerks, and her lips part before she swallows. “I…won’t leave this place until I get my actual job.”
“I’ll take him back,” Yuri tells me and starts to drag her.
“No. Let him be.” I meet her darkened eyes that have been invaded with brown. “No one is allowed to feed him. When he’s starving to death, he’ll leave on his own.”
“I. Will. Not.” She has the fucking audacity to lift her chin and even glare at me.
I have to step away before I actually act on my depraved thoughts. All of them start and end with her beneath me confessing why the fuck she stood there when her lover shot me, then, apparently, took me to the hospital.
Viktor told me that, and he’s not the type who’d offer Lipovsky any sort of credit if it wasn’t true.
I can feel Lipovsky’s gaze at the back of my head as Karina and I wander into the garden.
Once we’re out of earshot, my sister blurts, “Why don’t you just give him his job back? What did he do? Didn’t he and Viktor save you? I just don’t understand.”
“Let it go, Kara.”
“But… Oh! He can be my bodyguard if you don’t want him!”
“No. He’s not allowed near you.”
“But why?” She glares up at me. “Just so you know, Kosta asked Sasha to be the head of his bodyguards.”
I slide my attention to my sister. “Did he, now?”
“He so did! But Sasha said he’s only your guard.”
A guard who lured me to my near death.
But that doesn’t matter, because the fact remains—her life is all mine now.
8
SASHA
Am I doing the right thing?
Honestly, I don’t know. What I do know, however, is that I refuse to move from here unless Kirill stops this madness and at least hears me out.
And not talk at me, but actually talk to me.
I know it’s an impossible thing to ask for since he thinks I betrayed him, but I also won’t be exiled to the other end of the house indefinitely.
Maybe he’ll never be satisfied, and I’ll grow old and gray in that boring weapon vault.