Page 60 of A Twisted Gift

I release a breath, relieved. “Thank you, Raina.”

She kisses me sweetly, her fingers threading through my hair. It’ll be worth it, waiting. However much my body is screaming at me, begging for any type of release, my heart needs her to have the right motivations. I’ll find it in me to wait an eternity if I have to.

I help Raina get her clothes back on, minus her panties. Those are shoved deep into my pocket, and I’m not planning on giving them back.

Once we’re on our feet, we retrace our steps and grab Raina’s knife from the dining room. It’s eerily silent in here, considering all the screams we pulled out of these three men.

Hand in hand, Raina and I head toward the foyer. We’ll light a few curtains on fire on our way out to erase some of the evidence that we were here. It won’t cover up the bullet holes in the Montgomery’s bodies, but it’ll make it a hell of a lot harder to figure out who killed them all. If somehow the authorities find me to blame, I have the right contacts to get away with it. Unlike Charles, I’m untouchable.

I made sure of it.

“Are you hungry?” Raina asks as we near the front of the house. “Maybe we could get something to eat on the way to—”

She’s cut off by the undeniable sound of a car door slamming out front. For a second, we’re both frozen, but then she dashes to one of the windows.

“Raina,” I hiss. “What’re you doing?”

“Seeing who it is, obviously. What if it’s Mari—”

She cuts herself off, her face falling into an expression of terror. I’m already moving toward her, but it’s too late. The front door opens, and Ivan crosses the threshold, his eyes on my Rose.

Chapter eighteen

Raina

“I knew it,” Ivan seethes, his gaze zeroing in on me.

My mind screams at me to run, but I’m stuck. Frozen in place as he grabs my wrist and pulls me toward the door. He’s so forceful that I almost fall over. Fear grips my heart, but then Erik is pressing the barrel of his gun to Ivan’s temple.

“Let her go, or I’ll blow your brains out right here and now.”

Ivan narrows his eyes. “You wouldn’t.”

“Fucking try me.”

Erik’s words have the same undertone to them that they did when he spoke to Benjamin. A challenge, a dare. He’d love the excuse to kill Ivan like this. I think the only thing holding him back is the fact that the gun is mere inches from my head.

A split second bleeds into an eternity as Erik stares Ivan down, his grip tightening on the gun. But then Ivan’s hand loosens, and I yank myself free, stumbling into Erik.

“Get behind me, little rose.”

Before I even have a chance to move, Erik is already pushing me away and stepping in front of me.Always a shield.

“You have no right to her,” Ivan grinds out.“Iwon her.Ibought her.”

“Does it look like I give a damn?” Erik growls.

“Charles,” Ivan shouts. “Charles, get down here, you lying, cheating fuck.”

“He’s a bit preoccupied at the moment.”

“Sure he is,” Ivan says dryly. “Avoiding the consequences of his own actions, I assume? And to think I believed him when he told me Raina disappeared. He’s been hiding her here since last night, hasn’t he? Thinking he could get away with this. Looks like I made the right call in dropping by.”

“Looks like you did,” Erik replies, the coolness in his tone masking the dark edge that Ivan doesn’t seem to pick up on.

Ivan narrows his eyes. “What’re you doing here, Hawthorne? Are you in on this somehow? You haven’t touched her, have you? I was promised her virginity.”

I clutch the back of Erik’s shirt as fear courses through me. Was all my worry warranted? What if Ivan somehow gets past Erik and takes me? Will he know that I’m not a virgin anymore?AmI still a virgin?

---