Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 33695 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 168(@200wpm)___ 135(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33695 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 168(@200wpm)___ 135(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
He could wait.
It would be worth it.
Chapter Five
“Seriously? Couples do not hang out this much. They don’t even spend this much time together while they’re dating. You should know this,” Galina said.
They’d been engaged for two weeks.
Galina did not expect to see Mikhail often. There was the whole organizing the wedding, and having the right amount of time for them to be engaged. The parties, the dinners, the planning, everything in between. There was the dress, the cake, the flowers, everything to arrange. She expected to see Mikhail a handful of times.
In the past two weeks, she’d spent five of those nights sleeping at his penthouse suite, with Peter covering for them all.
After the first night, Peter had talked to her in private and asked for help. He told her he needed time to be trusted. She knew his guard reported back to their parents, and she figured Mikhail had played some kind of interference for their parents to not already know. There was no way she would tell their parents what was going on. Not that she would admit it to anyone, not even her own brother, but she loved the freedom, which was insane. Her sense of freedom didn’t come without a cost. The cost being all of her spare time with Mikhail.
Like now.
Mikhail had taken her to his father’s private estate, which happened to have a gun range on site. There hadn’t been much of a tour of Mikhail’s home, as he’d gotten her to once again change into workout clothes. This time, there was a splash of pink throughout the sports bra and leggings. She thought they looked pretty cool.
He’d promised her a tour of the house when they returned.
His parents weren’t home and she didn’t ask where they were. There was no point. Boris Belsky and his wife Anna owned a lot of property, and with business, it took them all over. She didn’t need that explained to her.
“And why should I know this?” Mikhail asked.
“You dated all through high school.” Mikhail came to a stop and she hadn’t been paying too much attention so she nearly collided with his back. She managed to stop herself from hitting him at the last minute.
He spun around. “You think I dated through high school?”
The question took her by surprise at first, but also, being so close to him, which she wasn’t prepared for.
She finally gained her senses. “Yes. I know you did. I saw all the girls hanging around you. You were constantly surrounded.”
“Jealous?”
“Jealous? Why would I be jealous? I’m merely stating a fact.”
“I didn’t have a single girlfriend through high school. I never dated anyone.”
“I find that hard to believe when they were all hanging off your arm, and pretty much throwing themselves at you.”
She heard him sigh.
“They might have been attempting to throw themselves at me, but that doesn’t mean I cared to take the bait, and I didn’t. Most of them just wanted to bag the boss’s son. I was a trophy to them.”
“Which is incredibly strange, seeing as their virginity was meant to be their main selling point.”
“We’re the Belsky Bratva, babe. Not the mafia.”
“My parents were pretty strict with me.”
“Because of who your father is, but that doesn’t apply to everyone. Everyone else has their own agenda. You’ll see it.”
She rolled her eyes and then they came to a stop. They’d gone to the back of his gardens, through a small woodland, and came out to a field with perfectly formed lines. She saw everything was set up as if they were inside a gun range. There were electrical lines to hang up large pictures to shoot at.
“We’re here,” Mikhail said.
Folding her arms beneath her breasts, she stood perfectly still and waited. There was a small shed, and Mikhail pulled out a set of keys from his back pocket and entered. She didn’t want to follow him, so remained where she was in the open field, listening to the sounds of nature and him rustling around.
He returned with several large printed shooting targets over his arm. He placed them on the small table beside them, attaching one to the top of the device, and then clicking a button. She watched as it zoomed down the line.
“Doesn’t this get water damage?” she asked. “Being out in the open, when it could rain?”
“It gets covered or doesn’t open when there’s rain.”
“Ha, ha, very funny.” She nibbled her bottom lip and waited for Mikhail as he once again returned to the shed.
He came out with two guns. She had no idea what kind they were, but one was short and stubby, the kind she saw that most cops had in action movies. The other was a long one, still scary-looking, and not one she wanted.
Mikhail placed both guns on the counter.
“Take one,” he said.
“I’d rather not. They do not look safe.” She wrinkled her nose. “Not for a second.”