Page 72 of Deceitful Vows

I hate myself even more than I already do when I can’t add his surname to my scold. I don’t Skype, Snapchat, or FaceTime. I don’t even have an Instagram account, for crying out loud. I keep my imprint on social media minimal so I don’t have to worry about the ghosts of my past finding their way back to me via their invisible footsteps.

“Fuck you and your brother and your stupid-ass power trip.”

I push him away from me before tossing open the driver’s side door of Mikhail’s suddenly less-appealing ride to retrieve my belongings. It is only a charging cable, an outdated phone, and a purse with minimal funds, but I own them, so I refuse to leave without them.

“The closest town is twelve miles away,” Andrik announces in a low, thigh-quaking tone when I hotfoot it toward his long, winding driveway.

I don’t spin around to see his response when I flip him the bird a second after I commence aerating his pristine lawn with the four-inch heels of my stilettos. I don’t need to. The heat of his snarl will keep me warm during the long trek home, not to mention the absolute fury that blackens my veins when disappointment is my first response for his lack of retribution.

25

ANDRIK

My eyes flick from Zoya’s rapidly dwindling frame to a fleet of SUVs rolling through the front gates of my palatial mansion when Mikhail finally answers my call. “You’ve reached Brody’s. How can I help you?”

“Are you a complete fucking idiot?”

I don’t give him a chance to answer because I don’t need to hear his words to know that is precisely what he is.

His breathy chuckle tells me everything I need to know.

“Or are you so determined to make my life a living hell that you’re willing to drag her to the fiery depths alongside me?”

My annoyance grows, and I hate that I don’t need to say Zoya’s name for him to know who I am referencing. “Anoushka said you are seeking a new PA for this region. Zoya studied?—”

“We are seeking a new PA for this region because the last one asked the wrong houseguest why I was paying the rent of a one-bedroom apartment on the outskirts of Myasnikov when I own multiple estates not even a twenty-minute drive from there.” When he remains quiet, not quite putting the pieces together as fast as I’d like, I spell it out for him. “She asked Arabella, who doesn’t have a single fucking thought without running it by her mother first. The same fucking woman who has our father eating out of her palm.”

“Fuck.”

That’s it. That is all he gives me.

Then, after numerous cusswords, he says, “I wasn’t thinking.”

“No, you weren’t.”

And neither the fuck was I. I’m not going to tell him that, though.

My plan was to move closer to Zoya’s location to protect her, not pin a target on her back, but even something billed as a country escape was impossible to implement with the federation and my father breathing down my neck.

My every move is being scrutinized, and I hate it almost as much as I loathe the devastated look Zoya gave me when I had to pretend she’s nothing but a prop for me to fuck with.

I didn’t lie two weeks ago when I said she hasn’t left my head for a single second. She’s in every frame, but I’m not the only one playing her features on repeat.

Her name has been tossed around too often over the past month for me not to pay careful attention to every mutter.

If I hadn’t looked up with a second to spare, I would have been busted violating the very woman I’m endeavoring to hide.

I can’t fight fire with fire when Zoya is directly in front of me. It isn’t possible. I’m not thinking about vengeance or the possible retaliation I’ll face when they find out the man my mother struck didn’t die of natural causes.

Nothing but the thrill of the chase is on my mind, and how much I crave my middle name being spoken by Zoya while she’s in the midst of ecstasy.

But as quickly as the wish to make her climax burns through my veins, so does the remembrance of the last time I failed to protect the only person I truly cared about.

As much as I should hate to admit this, Zoya’s fiery attitude attracts me more than her vulnerability. I love that she’s willing to push the boundaries and that she has the gall to pull off a raid not even the world’s deadliest assassin would consider.

She won’t just slap a man who does her wrong.

She will wholly fucking destroy him.

---