Page 42 of Solemn Vow

He grabs my arms to steady me.

“Where are you going so fast,moy sladkiy voin?” He chuckles, but the smile fades when he takes in my expression. “What’s going on in this beautiful head of yours?” He taps my temple gently.

“The stuff you had sent over.” I take a shaky breath, getting ready for a fight. “I can’t accept it. Please. It’s very generous, but I can’t.”

“We’re back to that?” He moves across the expanse of the room. “Why can’t you accept a gift?”

“Because it’s not a gift. You only gave it to me because you feel sorry for me, and I won’t—” I pause, feeling the emotions getting too big again. “I can take care of this myself.”

“I don’t feel sorry for you.” The words drop hard between us. “You can obviously take care of yourself. You’ve managed to keep up with Jimmy’s demands for how long now? Weeks? Months? But what happens when you run out of things to sell? When you’ve worked yourself to the bone and still, he wants blood?”

“He wants twenty thousand more, then I’m done.” It will be hard, but I’ve gotten myself out of worse jams. Like evading Child Protective Services when they came looking for me after Dad died. And getting away from the cops on more than one occasion when I was first learning to get around a car’s alarm system.

“You think so? You think he’ll take it and call it over?” Viktor folds his arms over his chest. His forearms flex with his movements, but nothing is more distracting than how sexy he is when his face gets dark like this. When he’s on the edge of taking the reins and denying me any choice but to fall to my knees for him.

I sink into an armchair. It’s like sitting on a cloud.

“What do you want to do, Viktor? Give him your money? Then I will owe you, and I don’t want that either.”

“He’s not getting a fucking penny more from you, that’s for sure,” he states flatly. “And you wouldn’t have to owe me.”

I don’t even want to take furniture from him, and he thinks I’m going to take his cash?

“Absolutely not.” I swipe both hands out in front of me in an X pattern. If he won’t listen to my words, maybe he’ll understand the gesture.

“Fine.” He works his jaw like he’s trying to think of a way out of this mess. My mess. It’s not his to worry about.

“Unfortunately, I can’t handle this the way I want to, yet,” he says after a long pause.

“Because of Michael.” I nod. Everything gets muddy when different families are involved.

“And the Donato family.” He drops the name between us.

“You’re the great detective now?” It probably only took him a few phone calls. Men like him have connections everywhere. It was foolish to think I could hide this from him.

“I know Jimmy’s blackmailing you, and now I know for how much, and it has something to do with the Donato family’s car being stolen. What I don’t know is what he’s using to blackmail you. What does he have besides just his word?”

“A picture. Maybe more than one, I’m not sure.” There’s no point in trying to hide this from him anymore. I should probably give up on hoping he’ll let it alone.

“A picture of you and a car?”

“At first, he just threatened to give a message to my boss. He was going to tell her that I worked for Michael, and that I could still be working for him.” I’d been too scared of losing everything I’d worked for to do anything but cave.

“And now he has a picture?”

“Of Vincent Donato’s goddaughter’s car and me. When I fought back on giving him more cash, he showed it to me the other day, when I met him at that diner,” I explain.

“Maybe I can convince Vincent to let the matter drop. It was years ago. You’re not in that business anymore, and you’re under my protection. He won’t touch you.” He sounds so sure of it. That simply telling the Donatos to back away because I’m sleeping with a Petrov would work.

“Nicole Donato, Anthony Donato’s grandniece, owns Luxe Strands. I’d be out of a job and blackballed in the city.” AnthonyDonato doesn’t give mercy to those he feels hurt his family. It may have been years ago, but what I did hurt one of his own. He’s not going to just turn the other cheek.

“I’ll buy you a new salon.” Viktor has an answer for everything, doesn’t he?

I laugh. “Money won’t solve this; well, I mean it will, but only mine and only with getting Jimmy off my back. I’m not going to the Donato family for anything, and I never want Nicole to know I had any involvement with Michael Agosti.”

“Does Michael know about what Jimmy is doing?” he asks, leaning his shoulder against the marble mantel.

“Only that Jimmy wants me to start working again. Michael made it clear that if I were to ever start working on my own there’d be consequences. If I’m going back into the game, it has to be for Michael. Jimmy would be my only option.”

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