What could he say to that?
He knew she wasn’t wrong.
To send his daughter into the eye of the storm? To face the monster she had been running away from?
Karine slowly stood up.
Roman couldn’t look away from those big eyes of hers, clear like an ocean and dragging him under like waves. “I asked you to trust me.”
“And I did.”
“How can you say that? You didn’t stay—”
“I didn’t want to be there, and this was my one chance,” she told him. “It was the only one I had left to make sure he was gone for good. Me, I did that.”
But it could have killed her.
He bet she took the risk, knowing that.
Roman found that hard to swallow.
Goddamn.
He still loved her for it, though.
“I know this has been a lot,” Karine said suddenly, dropping his gaze.
Roman couldn’t help it—he barked out a laugh at that. Here she was, trying to calm his overworked ass. He could get used to that, though.
Karine smiled, then, and Roman forgot about the rest. All his unanswered questions, and that bloody dress and knife. Even the house they currently stood in, the bodies that were apparently rotting somewhere, and the people watching them.
None of it mattered but her.
He moved for her, and she couldn’t even be bothered to come around the desk, instead climbing over top of it to reach him faster. He pulled her off the desk, and she wrapped her legs around his waist. Her breasts pressed to his chest, her breaths heavy, as he took her mouth with his for a kiss he was sure would leave her feeling bruised.
She didn’t seem to mind.
Clung to him closer.
In the background, he could hear the woman named Cherie making conversation with his father, wanting to iron out all the details of her business. Maxim had made some specific promises to her, and she expected Demyan was going to keep his end of the bargain.
Roman pulled away from his panting, grinning wife when he heard his father reply, “Let me say hello to my daughter-in-law properly first, then we’ll do business. Family first.”
Karine hadn’t looked away from Roman’s eyes.
Yeah.
Family first.
*
They had a mess to clean.
A big one.
Demyan told Roman he would handle it—gave his son the night to do what he wanted before they’d have to gather for direction. Roman didn’t need to be told twice by his father.
He wasn’t staying there.
Didn’t bother to check on the bodies before he left, or the mingling men ready to take orders from his father the second they stepped out of the office.
Karine remained quiet, happy to disengage from the people as long as Roman was there for her to shrink into. As he led her away from the house and the things that had transpired within it, he realized Karine was still very much who she was, no matter what she did that might seem different.
Roman let her stew in her silence and thoughts as he navigated unknown roads, and the car’s GPS, to get them to a hotel in the city. ID and a credit card with no limit nabbed them a decent penthouse suite for a week, and Roman didn’t even concern himself with the bill.
It was only once he had his wife stripped naked, sitting on the edge of the bathtub filling with hot, bubbly water that she spoke.
“My hands hurt again.”
He passed the bandages a glance. “You were alone with him?”
“I had to be. It was the easiest way to get inside the house. We only had to be in. He trusted Cherie; as long as he didn’t hurt the girls too bad, she brought them back. He didn’t even recognize me. Barely looked at me. That was the thing, I think. None of us meant anything to him. Women, I mean. We’re not even human, as far as he was concerned.”
Roman’s gaze traveled over the beautiful, naked body of his wife who spoke without remorse about a plan he hadn’t even known existed until it was too late, and already over. All the work he’d put in to protect her, and she was the one who ended up doing the dirty work for them all. He didn’t seem to notice the splats of blood all over her anymore.
“I’m proud of you, Karine,” he murmured.
Scared to death, too.
A little amazed.
Still trying to catch up ...
And proud all the same.
She reached for him, her bandaged hands shaking just a little, but he didn’t know if it was because they hurt, or something else. Her fingers skated lightly over his jaw, and then his lips before she whispered, “I wanted everyone to know what I would do—for the people I love, I wanted them to know, Roman.”
“I’m sure everyone got that message. Loud and clear, babe.”
Including him.
When she sunk under the water, even her bandaged hands, he was undressed and already sinking with her. He held her tight, made every promise he intended to keep while her skin softened from soapy hot water, and she cried.
Only a little.
Just long enough for him to know ...
She’d never have to do this again.
*
Later, when Roman thought Karine was finally asleep in the unfamiliar hotel bed, he made a call to his father, and then decided to watch the lights of the city flicker instead of making his way to the bedroom. He needed a moment.
Just to settle his mind.
It kind of felt like those lights, blinking or too bright.
In nothing but unzipped slacks, Roman polished off three mini bottles of vodka from the wet bar, and made a note to ask for full bottles first thing the next morning. Who knew how long they were going to be here?
Instead of letting his mind wander to that place, he settled on the vision of fucking Karine bent over the footboard of the bed. God, she’d been so wet, hands on her ass to widen herself open for him while he nailed her into the mattress. She liked to be handled just rough enough that she toed the line of losing control, and he understood why.
She craved so many things.
Some that had been taken away.
Some she’d never known.
A lot she wanted back.
He could still smell her on him.
Sex clung to everything.
It also made everything so much better.
Apparently, a good hour of fucking his wife to sleep after not being able to touch her for way too long just wasn’t enough to put Roman’s overactive mind to rest.
Shocker.
“Hey.”
Roman spun on his heel to find Karine leaning in the shadows of the darkened hallway. She smiled, and he grinned back.
“Hey,” he replied.
“The bed is warm, you know.”
Roman nodded. “I know.” Her smile faltered when he told her, “Maxim’s body will be found tomorrow. He even orchestrated the way he wanted to die, by the hand of a friend, but since it’ll likely be on the news in the morning, I better tell you now.”
It took her a moment.
“How?”
He shifted from foot to foot. “My father.”
Karine’s brow knotted a little, the pain flashing in her face as he watched another chapter close in her life. They didn’t always get the answers they wanted or needed.
“He told him to tell you that he did love you.”
“I know he did,” she replied soft and fast. “In his own way. And it must have been so lonely.”
Demyan’s words about Maxim’s fear that his love was something like a cancer eating away at people he didn’t want to hurt ... well, maybe that held some weight.
“You’ll be able to say goodbye, in a way.”
“Yeah, I guess so.” Karine dragged in a shaky breath, just the one, and then asked, “Are you going to ask me why I left with my father?”
“I suspect you had your reasons.”
“But you won’t ask?”
“You’ve made it clear, Karine, that you can and want to make
your own decisions.”
And he didn’t have to like them.
She wouldn’t always like his, after all.
“I thought I would be free.”
Roman didn’t reply because mostly, he didn’t know what to say to that. Of him—of life? What did she want to be free of? Maybe just didn’t want the answer.
Roman fished the pack of cigarettes and a lighter out of his pocket, sticking a smoke between his lips as Karine said, “And I also wondered what it would be like to be free. I wasn’t sure if you considered our marriage to be a real one. If Dima was dead and the war was over, I thought maybe it would mean the end of our marriage, too. I was scared to say it, but I did believe that.”
Roman lit the smoke, taking in a heavy drag and blowing it out to the ceiling as he eyed her in the shadows. “I married you because I want to spend the rest of my life with you, but I understand if you want to be free. That you can see the world as endless possibilities right now, but I’m sure you only see one kind of life with me.”
It pained him to say it, to even give her the chance to walk away from him now. The truth was he didn’t know if she would take it. Maybe she didn’t plan on staying. Maybe committing her to the facility in Nevada was the last straw.
Hell, maybe she didn’t trust him anymore.
He’d deserve that.
Karine shook her head, her fingers curving around the edge of the wall as she leaned further out of the shadows, closer to him. “But I’ll never be free of you, Roman. You are the only man I’ve ever loved. That’s all I ever wanted.”
When her hand stretched out for him to take, he crossed the room to do just that. The urge to follow her anywhere was strong, even if it was to yet another unfamiliar bed.
He took another drag from the cigarette as she pulled him into the bedroom down the short hall where the French doors were pulled wide open.
“I don’t ever want to sleep in a hotel bed again,” he told her.
“So buy me a house, and I’ll find you a bed you’ll wanna sleep in every night.”
He didn’t doubt her. Roman liked that idea fine.
Karine dropped the hotel robe down her shoulders, showing off bare skin he’d spent so much time loving earlier. Just like that, his tongue watered, his dick got hard, and he thought he might be ready to go again. Even if every part of this tempting woman had been a lie that could have destroyed him, he still would have happily died just to get another taste.
“What happens now?” she asked him.
For once, he could smile when she asked him that question because the truth didn’t have to be scary. There were a lot of unknowns facing them, sure—he’d never deny that. The mess they had left behind just to stand here together now stretched from the city of Chicago to the bright lights of Vegas, and the gated suburbs of New York, New York.
He was still happy about it, though. Despite funerals to plan, and secrets still between them, what could be wasn’t at all frightening anymore.
“Whatever you want, Karine.”
She only shook her head at that, laughing like he was silly. Maybe he was; with her, who’d care?
“Don’t you know?” she asked him, her grin blooming wider than ever as she came to stand on her tiptoes in front of him. Close enough to kiss as she said, “I told you—I want you.”
“Will you always?”
“Forever.”
“Even if I’m a prick?”
“Even then,” she agreed.
“Even when Masha tells you I almost killed her and—”
“Roman.”
Her amused glower turned into something vicious in a blink. He had to laugh.
She didn’t like that much, either.
“Stop that,” she demanded, poking his chest.
“I’ll have her flown in tomorrow,” he promised.
“Is she okay?”
With the cigarette still burning between his fingers, Roman used the pad of his thumb to smooth away that knot of concern between her eyebrows. “You’re all she has, I think. I tried to keep that in mind for you.”
Karine’s eyes closed at his touch and words, whispering back, “You’re all we have, Roman. Think about that.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The author of too many novels to count, Bethany-Kris is a Canadian, lover of much, and mother to four sons, a glaring of cats, and a pack of dogs. A small town in Eastern Canada where she was born and raised is where she has always called home. With her boys under her feet, a snuggling cat, barking dogs, and a spouse calling over his shoulder, she is nearly always writing something ... when she can find the time.
Find where to follow BK and keep up to date with all her book news at her:
WEBSITE
OTHER BOOKS
The Darkest Lies Trilogy
The Agreement
The Promise
The Marriage
After Another Trilogy
One Step After Another
One Breath After Another
One Second After Another
Boykov Bratva
Fractured Ties
Essence of Fear
The Guzzi Legacy
Corrado
Alessio
Chris
Beni
Bene
Marcus
The Firsts: A Guzzi Legacy Companion Novel
The Guzzi Legacy: Vol 1
The Guzzi Legacy: Vol 2
Renzo + Lucia
Privilege
Harbor
Contempt
Forever
Cusp
Renzo + Lucia: The Complete Trilogy
Andino + Haven
Duty
Vow
One Last Time
Andino + Haven: The Complete Duet
John + Siena
Loyalty
Disgrace
John + Siena: The Complete Duet
John + Siena: Extended
Cross + Catherine
Always
Revere
Unruly
The Companion
Naz & Roz
Guzzi Duet
Unraveled, Book One
Entangled, Book Two
Cara & Gian: The Complete Duet
DeLuca Duet
Waste of Worth: Part One
Worth of Waste: Part Two
Standalone Titles
Pink
Dirty Pool
Effortless
Inflict
Cozen
Captivated
Dishonored
Donati Bloodlines
Thin Lies
Thin Lines
Thin Lives
Behind the Bloodlines
The Complete Trilogy
Filthy Marcellos
Antony
Lucian
Giovanni
Dante
Legacy
A Very Marcello Christmas
The Complete Collection
Seasons of Betrayal
Where the Sun Hides
Where the Snow Falls
Where the Wind Whispers
Seasons: The Complete Seasons of Betrayal Series
Gun Moll Trilogy
Gun Moll
Gangster Moll
Madame Moll
The Chicago War
Deathless & Divided
Reckless & Ruined
Scarless & Sacred
Breathless & Bloodstained
The Complete Series
Maldives & Mistletoe
The Russian Guns
The Arrangement
The Life
The Score
Demyan & Ana
Shattered
The Jersey Vignettes
FANTASY ROMANCE
The Hunted: A 9INE REALMS Novel
Find more on Bethany-Kris’s website at www.bethanykris.com.
Copyright © 2021 by Bethany-Kris. All Rights Reserved.
WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction
or distribution of this copyrighted material is illegal and punishable by law. No parts of this work may be reproduced, copied, used, or printed without expressed written consent from the publisher/author. Exceptions are made for brief excerpts used in reviews.
eISBN 13: 978-1-989658-41-3
Editor: Eli Peters
Proofreaders: Tracy A., Mia S., and Felicia F.
Cover Design © Mignon Mykel
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, organizations, corporations, locales and so forth are a product of the author’s imagination, or if real, used fictitiously. Any resemblance to a person, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.