Page 1 of Deceitful Promises

CHAPTER 1

AIDEN

Imove into the lion’s den, the Sokolov estate, using tunnels built long before the brothers took control of the Bratva. I’ve got one goal—her, Ania. She’s the only person who matters here. If nobody gets in my way, I won’t hurt them.

I can’t let her stay with these criminals. I can’t let them think they own her.

Her mother’s waiting for her; a new life is waiting.

No part of me wants this to come to violence, but if anybody gets in my way, I’ll do what I have to do—what I am trained to do.

When the moment comes, Ania looks at me almost like … I shouldn’t let myself think it, but she looks at me almost like shewantsme to take her. It’s like she’s been waiting for this moment.

CHAPTER 2

ANIA

Okay, so I must be the most naive person ever. After all that life has thrown at me, the allegro of ups and downs and the tempo never stopping, the pirouettes of pain—not knowing my mom, knowing my dad was evil, loving him anyway, wishing I could hate him—after all this, Istillthought the Sokolovs had reached their happily ever after.

Now, this strangely handsome man is driving me through the desert. I’m sitting in the back, no bindings on my hands, no gag in my mouth.

“This doesn’t feel like a kidnapping,” I murmur. My voice sounds distant. It feels like it belongs to somebody else somehow. Maybe this is how I will deal with this—from a distance.

“You can call it what you want,” he says.

It’s like he’s trying to make his tone mean, low, and cruel, but it doesn’t sound right.

“You don’t seem like a criminal.”

He makes apfftnoise, and I immediately know what he’s thinking.

“I might be a kid in your eyes, but I’ve been around enough Bratva to be able to tell.”

“Go on then,” he says with a sarcastic note of indulgence. I think he’s almost smirking as I study him in the rearview. “Why don’t you tell me who I am, Ania.”

It’s not a question. It has the quality of a command like he’ll make me do things anyway. Silly, crazy thoughts grip me as I think that—the sort of thoughts I shouldn’t allow into my head about this kidnapping stranger.

“Military,” I tell him.

“Too many rules,” he growls.

“Ex-military, then.”

He glances at me in the mirror, surging down the dusty, lonely road. “Hmm.”

“Hmm? Is that a yes or a no?”

“It’s ahmm.”

“You’re a very well-spoken person. Has anybody ever told you that before?”

It’s easier to hide behind humor. I need to be careful not to feel too proud when a smirk twitches his lips. He wipes it away like he’s ashamed, grimacing at the road, but I saw it. I felt that flutter of warm something in my belly.

“You seem more well-spoken than me,” he says.

“That’s what happens when you spend your life dancing and reading.” A voice whispers in my head. I think it’s Dimitri saying,Don’t let him fool you. You’re too trusting. The first chance you get, run. I tried to run when he first appeared like magic, and where did that get me? He felt so strong and possessive as he looped his arm around me.

“Hmm,” he says again.

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