Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 79312 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79312 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
I also don’t like staff milling about the place, so I hired a housekeeper but no one else. I vetted the fuck out of her background.
I stalk toward my office, every step igniting my temper. I’ll kick Lev's ass for drugging her. I'm fucking pissed at Aleksandr for getting involved. I hate that Mikhail has made me leave when my place is with her. And if anybody else—
I shove the door open, and it slams into the wall behind it. Six pairs of eyes are riveted on me. Mikhail, Aleksandr, Lev. My brothers Nikko, Ollie, and Kolya.
Nikko gets on his feet, the largest one in the group after me and the one who's most likely to actually stand a chance against me. He heads toward me. I hold up a palm, trying to stop him before I kill him.
“Stand the fuck down, Nikko.”
Kolya tries next, Mikhail and Aleksandr behind him. I shake them all off. Lev stands. I swing and punch his jaw. In one swift motion, I grab him by the front of the shirt and throw Lev across the room and onto the couch, where I know he'll land without breaking bones, but it won’t feel good.
I shrug off Mikhail, kick Aleksandr back, and swing at Nikko. I'm breathing heavily. They’re staring at me.
“Viktor,” Kolya snaps.
I blink. I start to come to my senses. Shit. If I had raised a fist to Mikhail…
“Do we have to fucking restrain you?” Mikhail spits out, his eyes storm clouds as he glares at me. Lev massages his jaw but doesn't say anything, probably knowing he got off easy. Kolya is fuming, his nostrils flared, but he gets to his feet and brushes his clothes off as if he's dusting himself.
“Sit down, Viktor,” he snaps.
I stand my ground. “None of you know what it was like. None of you know what he was planning to do to her. She did not need to be drugged, and now I have to take a reluctant wife who doesn't trust me because my fucking family drugged her like she was an animal. I told you that I had it under control. I told you that I could handle her!”
My voice rises to a roar, and they are on their feet again.
“No one doubted that you could handle her, Viktor. But we needed to subdue her and get her back here safely,” Aleksandr says. Mikhail is in my face, and so help me God, I'm going to knock his fucking teeth out, and then they'll all have the right to kill me.
No.
I step away from him only to land right next to Aleksandr. I shove him against the wall. His shoulder hits a framed print of the Louvre, and it crashes to the floor, glass shattering everywhere. Aleks rights himself and reaches for me, but I shove him back.
“When is the wedding?” I look at Ollie, the one in charge of international relations who knows exactly why we have to marry right now.
“Saturday.”
I grit my teeth. She won't trust me by then. I have a vision of me dragging her by the hair to the altar. I will if I fucking have to, to save her. To save all of us.
“I need more time. Buy more fucking time.”
Ollie and Nikko share a look. “I can make that happen.”
The lights in the room flicker before they go off. An alarm wails, and that's when I become aware of the smell of acrid smoke.
“I fucking told you I had to stay with her.”
Shit. I turn on my heel and run into the hallway. Smoke billows out from under the door, and all the lights are out. I run to the room and try the door, but it's locked, of course. She's jammed something up against it. What the fuck is she doing?
“Help me!” I scream to my brothers. “I can't open the fucking door.”
“I'll get in through the window,” Lev says. I snatch a fire extinguisher from the hallway and throw it to Ollie. I don’t have that option, but he’s small enough. “Go with him. When you get in there, you do not touch her.”
I run around to the exit, into the garden, and around the house to where the window is. The window to my bedroom is wide open, smoke billowing into the sky, sirens loud in the distance. Lev and Ollie come up beside me, all of us scanning the grounds. How the fuck did she get out?
I stand still. Listen. She's got nothing with her. If she got out of that room, there's only one way out. She's either running or… hiding.
I scan. I haven't been gone long enough for her to get far. Even if she left the second she triggered the alarm, she hardly had any time.
“Get Aleks on surveillance immediately,” I bark out to Lev. I walk with heavy footsteps around the perimeter of the house.