Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 79833 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79833 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
“Language,” I growl in warning, battling to wrap my head around what I’ve just witnessed.
Dante watches me with his jacket brushed aside and his hands on his hips.
“How do you do that?” I ask, getting to my feet.
She shrugs. “I don’t know. It’s like a pattern. Once you get how the pattern works, it’s easy.”
There’s nothing easy about the calculations she does in a split-second in her head. In all my life, I’ve never seen anything like it.
Dante cuts me a look.
We’re thinking the same thing.
My treasure is a mathematical genius.
I take her in with wonder, my admiration for the miracle that she is climbing all the notches until it hits the ceiling.
That’s when an idea occurs to me.
Anya’s talent and skills give me the perfect solution to keep her safe from Luigi. It’ll drag her deeper into our business, but it’s a small price to pay for her life. I know just how to make her indispensable. I know exactly how to make Luigi and Giorgio so dependent on her that instead of wanting to get rid of her, they’ll guard her like their most precious asset.
Holding my genius’s pretty honey-colored gaze, I say, “I’ve just found our new bookkeeper.”
Anya blinks. “What?”
I walk to where she sits. “We’re yet to replace Lewis.”
Apprehension washes over her features. “You must be joking.”
“Sav,” Dante says, his tone beseeching. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
I know what’s going through his head. Including Anya by exposing the organization’s deepest secrets and crimes is nothing short of putting her life in danger. Only, in this instance, it’s a way of clearing the price on her head. He can’t know that it’s a soundproof way of preventing a war.
“Give us a minute,” I tell him, not breaking eye contact with Anya.
He hovers for a second but finally walks out and closes the door.
Silence stretches while we weigh each other.
Anya speaks first. “I can’t do that.”
“You’re just as capable of doing the books as Lewis was.” Correcting myself, I say, “No, you’ll be better.”
“That’s not what I meant.” She looks at me with a willful expression. “I don’t want to get involved in your business.”
She makes to get up, to no doubt escape, but I step so close to her that our knees touch. Sinking back into the cushions, she observes me with trepidation.
“I wish there was another way, Anya, but there isn’t.”
Her pulse flutters in her throat. “What exactly are you saying? That you’re not giving me a choice?”
“There is no choice. Luigi wants you dead. He also desperately needs a new bookkeeper he can trust. Antonio took over, but he’s making a mess of things.”
She huffs a laugh. “And you think Luigi will trust me?”
I look deep into the mesmerizing pools of her eyes that resemble the color of the sun, of whisky, of sin. And suddenly, I know without a doubt what I have to do. “He will if you prove that you’re loyal to me.”
She shrinks deeper into her seat. “How am I supposed to do that?”
“You’ll marry me.”
The expression that comes over her beautiful face is so stunned I may as well have slapped her.
“You can’t be serious,” she says in a breathless voice.
“We’ll get married before the baby is born.”
She opens and closes her mouth, but no sound escapes from her lips. Her cheeks are the color of ash, the blood drained from her face.
When she finally finds her voice, it’s to say with a bitter accusation in her tone, “Do I get a choice in this, or have you already decided?”
I lean down and brace my palms on the backrest, one on each side of her face. She cranes her neck to bravely hold my gaze even as fear and uneasiness dance in her eyes.
“Would you prefer that I go down on one knee?” I ask.
“No,” she says, all but spitting the word at me.
“I’ll be good to you, tesoro.” I caress the lines of her face with my gaze. “You know that from living with me already.”
Her pretty eyes spark with animosity and defiance. “Marriage will tie me to you forever.”
And isn’t that the sweetest thing I’ve heard?
Yeah, forever with her sits very right with me.
“When it comes to your life, my love, no price is too high to pay.”
“Why?” She studies me. “Why would you go to such lengths to keep me safe?”
She keeps on asking the same question, trying to understand my motives, but I can’t tell her my deepest secrets and saddest regrets. All I can give her is the same answer as always. “You know why.”
“To save your own skin,” she concludes with a sad little smile. “What’s that saying about keeping your enemies close? I guess you only have one alibi. You can’t risk losing her or letting her shoot off her mouth.”
Smiling, I admit another truth she already knows. “I never lied about my intentions.”