Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 89090 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89090 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Polina rolls her eyes when Alek replies, “That’s a story for another day.”
“Of course it is. When isn’t it when it comes to your secrets?” Her chest rises and falls before she breathes out heavily. “I’m the only one constantly forced to confront her biggest fears head-on.”
I feel like an absolute fucking cunt, but I’m not given a chance to apologize for how hard I pushed her this morning when Alek says, “Talking about fears, you better put that boy on the line.”
“Boy?”
Polina’s acting is brilliant, but it doesn’t fool Alek. “Don’t act like he’s not there. I can hear him purring to get close to you. He’s worse than the fucking stray cats he used to live with.”
Polina shoots daggers at me when I mutter, “They weren’t strays. They were my pets.”
“I tried to save you.” Polina's breath comes out with a sigh as she tosses me her phone. “Now the ball is in your court.”
After a supportive squeeze of my arm I don’t deserve, she mouths that she’s going to order us something to eat and leaves my room.
I collect my nuts from the floor and put them back into my sack before raising Polina’s phone until it sits a couple of inches out from my face.
Alek says nothing when he spots me on the screen.
Not a single fucking thing.
Not a fan of silence, I ask, “How’s Ana? The team? Any news on when you’ll be coming back?”
Instead of answering any of my questions, he asks, “How long?”
“Long?”
I know what he’s asking.
I am merely trying to delay the inevitable.
When his ticking jaw sounds out of the speakers, I mutter, “A couple of weeks after I returned from Sicily with Ana.”
“Date. I want the fucking date you started screwing my damn sister.” He scrubs at his beard as if messing it up will lessen his angry expression. “Was it before or after you shafted on your other obligations? It better not have been during, or I’ll…” He lets his expression finalize his reply.
He’s about to tear me a new asshole.
“What?”
I’m completely fucking lost. Excluding the six months I lost myself to cocaine and grief, I worked my ass to the fucking bone for him. I only pursued Polina when he gave me the all-clear from being Ana’s shadow because I knew I couldn’t give both tasks my all. One wouldn’t have been given the attention they deserved, and I didn’t want that person to be Polina, so I held back.
“The first time we fucked was the night you made Polina close up shop early.”
Okay, I’ll admit I could have said that a little more respectfully, but who thinks rationally when they’re pissed. I gave up on Polina for years because he didn’t tell me he punished Pavel for attempting to rape his sister. If he had, I wouldn’t have gone anywhere. Ana is my best friend, but Polina is my girl. She will always pull rank.
“Since we’re having this conversation, why the fuck didn’t you tell me about Pavel?” He tries to interrupt me, but I keep talking. “I thought you beat him because he ignored your order. You never mentioned him spiking her fucking drink and trying to rape her.”
“He what?” Alek’s voice is a roar, angry and deafening.
When unbridled rage floods his face, I say, “I thought you knew. She… ah…” I cuss when I realize I just broke a promise I made to Polina. “You can’t tell her I told you.” I cuss again when it dawns on me that lying will end us faster than anything. Drugs. Hang-ups. Remorse. We can get past them, but deceit will bury us. “Give me a chance to tell her I dobbed first. Please.”
My remorse shifts to anger when Alek mutters the last thing I expected to hear. “Pavel isn’t dead.”
“You better be speaking out your ass.”
“I didn’t know about the drugs, so I let him off with a warning and pushed him to the bottom of the shitkickers.” He drags his hand down his face in anger. “If I had known, I would have cut off his cock before stuffing it into the slit I would have given him from one ear to the next.”
As he stares into space, I realize he is staring at the only woman capable of subduing his anger.
Ana brings his fury down to a manageable level within a couple of seconds before she removes the phone from his hand and fills the screen with her adorable face.
Ana has cute-as-a-button features. Polina’s are more fierce and edgy.
They’re both gorgeous in their own right.
I bob my head in thanks when she says, “I’ll have Kliment send you the coordinates by the end of the day.” I stop breathing when she adds, “On one condition.”
Again, I nod.
I’ll agree to anything if it gives me a chance to protect my girl as I failed to do years ago.