Page 38 of Diamond Don

Nonetheless, I take the device back, my fingers grazing his hand. Sparks fly at the slightest physical touch between us as if my life was a stupid teenager flick. I try to hide my response to the slight contact, but I look up and catch his eyes with mine, and it’s obvious—the feeling is mutual.

“Thank you,” I say. He nods.

I glance at my phone screen, and there are over two dozen missed calls from A.J. and many more unread texts. So I quickly type a message to her.

Sorry for missing our meeting. Don’t worry, I’m fine. But I can’t talk now. I’ll try to call you later tonight.

My best friend starts typing back immediately. A wall of text pops up, but I can’t read it right now—not while Nik is paying attention to my every move. Instead, I send A.J. another message.

I can’t talk. I’ll explain everything tonight. Promise.

She starts typing up a storm again before abruptly stopping. Her reply comes a second later.

You better.

With a sigh, I set my phone down. Nik glances at it, before turning his gaze to me. He says nothing.

“So,” I say. “Tell me about the job.”

He studies me for a long moment, appearing to consider his answer carefully. At last, he says, “I think it would be better if we discussed this tomorrow, after you had a chance to rest from today.”

“I feel fine. Thanks to your two friends, I had a lovely nap this afternoon.”

Nik winces slightly. “Sorry about that. But it’s not like you’d have come here given the choice. As a matter of fact, Boris told me you put up quite a fight.”

His tone is a little too amused for my liking. I perk up in my seat, still furious at the brutes who abducted me for manhandling me. I’m even angrier at Nikolai for ordering them to do so in the first place.

“Which one of them is Boris?”

“Boris has a pretty noticeable scar on his face.”

“Oh, that one. He’ll get his comeuppance, I assure you.”

“Easy, tiger. The man was just doing his job.”

“And that’s supposed to make it okay?”

“Well, Kat, I’d think you’d have some sympathy for Boris, since you got yourself in trouble for doing your job, too.”

Another reason the stronzo must burn. It wasn’t enough for him to endanger my life by making me steal from a freaking mobster. He had to add insult to injury and make me lose my moral high ground with Nik. Unforgivable.

“I didn’t harm anyone,” I say.

Nikolai scoffs. “Debatable.”

“No, it isn’t. I may be a thief—allegedly, of course—but my hands are clean of blood. Can you say the same for yourself?” It gives me great pleasure to lord this over him.

He pauses for a moment before speaking. “I won’t apologize for doing what I have to do, Kat,” he says. Another pause. “Like I said, I think we should wait until the morning to discuss businesses.”

“What else would we talk about?”

He smirks at me, and I want to groan in frustration and hit myself. I can’t believe I took his bait so easily.

“Well, we could talk about us, of course, Kat,” he says—as I knew he would. His voice is as smooth as the wine he’s been generously pouring for me.

“There’s no us.”

“Come on, Kat. You know that’s not true.”

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