Page 50 of Deceitful Vows

Konstantine hums like he knows a cleanup crew will be called to Stoltz and Hemway before close of business, but then a harsh swallow cuts off its lengthy rumble.

“What is it?”

I’m seconds from signing Mikhail’s death certificate, when Konstantine shifts my focus elsewhere. “Man entering at your six. Blue suit. Seedy stache. One too many undone buttons. And a four-carat ruby on the custom piece on his left pinkie.” My eyes bounce to each feature he points out as I tighten my jaw more and more. “Does that crest look familiar to you?”

I squint, then cuss. I can’t see shit from this angle.

“The sun is?—”

My phone buzzing in my pocket interrupts my excuse. With my eyes on the man greeting my father as if they’re long-lost acquaintances, I dig my phone out of my pocket, then apprehensively drop my eyes to the image Konstantine forwarded.

Vengeance burns through my blood hot and fast. It isn’t an exact replica of the emblem I drew over a decade ago, but it is pretty fucking close.

“Who is he?”

A keyboard being punished sounds before Konstantine’s gravely tone. “Running him through facials now.”

Forever impatient, I say, “Tell Mikhail to move in closer until I get there.”

I don’t want to lose Zoya’s tail for the second time, but I’m too curious about the unnamed man’s identity to wait for facial recognition software to find a match. I’ve been seeking the owner of a large ruby ring with an engraved family crest on it for over thirty years. It was on the hand of the man my mother slapped mere seconds before she vanished without a trace—the same hand that left my cheek with a hairline scar.

“Warn Mikhail what will happen if he loses sight of her.”

“I’ll send exterminators to Petr’s location now,” Konstantine replies, announcing he knows what my unvoiced threat entails. “Anything else?”

Conscious he has eyes everywhere, I shake my head before yanking the bead-size communication device from my ear and dropping it to the floor.

The crunch of its demise is softer than the whack I hit my father’s back with before demanding an introduction to the man who has the focus of my entire team.

Even Arabella is gawking at him in surprise, and I’m really fucking curious to unearth why.

18

ZOYA

“Ithought the tears your colleague shed as he fell to his knees would have warned you to stay away.” I bump closed one of the many filing cabinets hidden at the back of the reception desk of Stoltz and Hemway before spinning to face the man whose pricy cologne announced his stalk long before the slow bob of his Adam’s apple. “If you’re as eager to breed as your brother, I suggest you turn around. It may be the only way your nuts will stay out of your stomach.”

Mikhail smiles.

He. Fucking. Smiles.

“I’m not playing, Mikhail.”

It only took me minutes to realize I was being followed when I raced out of Mikhail’s building, too hot with fury to remember my only mode of transport was parked in his underground parking lot.

I dealt with the tail as I wish I could have taken Andrik down.

I kneed him in the balls.

“I know how serious you are, Sunshine.” With his hands held in the air, Mikhail takes a non-defensive step forward. “I just figured if you truly want to remain off his radar, you’ll need the help I thought I was offering earlier.”

He scans his eyes over the filing cabinets I’m not even one-tenth of the way through. Dr. Hemway doesn’t file his patients’ records in alphabetical order like every other gynecologist. He has a system that isn’t meant to be cracked—or rate women on their fertility status.

I thought he was one of the good guys.

I’ve never felt more stupid.

Not even Mikhail’s betrayal hurt this much, because I understand he must side with his family.

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