Page 34 of Root

Shit, so close. So fucking close to walking out of this damn place.

Dragging a breath into my lungs, I face him. The big, bad Nikolai Wilder.

He’s gorgeous, around late thirties, maybe early forties, and I never really had an older man thing, but I can see why it gets girls going. I can see why it should get me going.

I mean…eyes that are straight up from the sexy region of hell, chiseled features, and dark hair I like. The man is drop dead beautiful. And the perfect suit that looks made to fit him helps.

So.

Why the fuck am I having trouble keeping my eyes from straying to the blond in the corner? And I know his eyes are full of wicked amusement. He pulls me to him, and kissing him was the biggest mistake of my life.

And I’ve made a few.

“Excuse me?”

Rush takes a sharp breath, I hear it, and can feel him straighten. But he doesn’t move to me and I don’t think it’s out of deference to his cousin. Well, at least not completely. It’s clear Nikolai’s the boss, but Rush wants to hear what I’ve got to say, he wants to see how I react.

They both do.

“I can continue playing nice,” Nikolai says, “or I can fucking pull you apart like the wings off a bug. You need to heal, you managed to get yourself here, so you stay until I find out why.”

This time my gaze slides to Rush and our eyes meet. It slams into me. Right between the tits, making it hard to get breath, making me want to reel back. “I got stabbed and Rush got me out of there. Against my will.”

Fine, I don’t remember if it was my idea or his to get the hell out of Bunny Munroe. Parts of that event are still lost in haze. Others flare bright like under a halogen lamp.

“And he brought me here,” I say, trying to work out just how far to take the attitude as I take a step forward.

Not far at all.

Not if the warning in Wilder’s gaze is to be obeyed.

And something tells me while I can fuck around and taunt the fuck boy, I’ll end up in various unmarked graves if I try it on Nikolai.

“Under your guidance?”

“No.” Rush steps forward, ignoring the warning glance from Nikolai. “I made that decision. Something was—”

“Rush.”

One word and Rush falls quiet.

One word and I can see Nikolai’s more than after something he’s casting for in the dark. He knows what he’s looking for. The lights are on. Spotlight on me and—

I think the word’s fuck.

This isn’t what I signed up for. Not the stabbing or getting close and in the danger zone of the patriarch of the Wilders.

Gather information on Nikolai Wilder—that’s what I was told—and Bunny’s is a good place to do it since I’d just started there. It’s a dive, but the kind of dive that pulls clientele from all over.

And Wilder men and women go there.

“I didn’t plan on getting stabbed. I didn’t ask to come here. Rush brought me here.”

Nikolai fixes me with a hard stare and how a man can make it feel like he’s got his hand around my throat and is ready to snap my neck by sitting there is anyone’s guess. But he does.

I don’t like it.

And I reassess just who his Rosalind is.

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