Page 60 of Cruel Promise

My father just put me into even more danger.

Maxim lowers his gun and turns to me. “Is that true?”

I don’t speak.

“Answer me. Are you really Nikolai Petrov’s wife?”

“It doesn’t matter what I say,” I speak, surprising myself. “You can find out that information for yourself.”

Maxim approaches me and reaches for my face. I flinch, but he only grabs my hood and pushes it off me. “Huh. It really is you. I was at your wedding.”

“I know.” I gulp. “Are you going to kill me?”

“Why would I kill you?”

“Because you want to hurt Nikolai for some reason. Why else threaten him? How better to hurt him than to use his own wife against him.”

Maxim rocks back on his heels. “That’s a good point. You’re a smart girl.”

“That’s what everyone tells me.”

“Do you know what he did to me? To us?” He nods at his two friends.

“No.”

“He killed our president. Just shot him in cold blood, all because he could. He then made me president of The Knights. He wanted me to be a good little dog to him. I came to your wedding to tell him I wouldn’t be that for him. But you see, I’m not a dog. I’m a man, and I have the ability for rational thought. Icouldhurt you. I could make Nikolai regret how he treated The Knights.”

I stare at the floor, waiting for Maxim to grab me. Waiting for him to hurt me.

But it never comes.

“I’m not going to use you to hurt Nikolai,” Maxim continues. “I’m going to use you as an opportunity.”

“An … opportunity?” I ask.

“For peace. I’ll deliver you back to your husband as a gesture of good will. And in return, he leaves The Knights alone. No more deals. No more working together. We part ways and don’t step on each other’s toes. I see a good opportunity before me. What’s your name again?”

I clear my throat. “Ava.”

“Right. Ava. I’m taking you back to your husband. Nikolai better appreciate my gesture of good will.”

I hope so, too.

I nod at my father. “What about him?”

Maxim stares at me for a moment before turning to my father and firing. The bullet lands in his leg. My father screams and falls to the floor.

“If he can crawl himself to safety,” Maxim says, “then he can live. Now, let’s go.”

“But your money,” I say.

“Making peace is more important than money.” He gently grabs my arm and leads me from the apartment. My father’s screams follow us.

When we reach Maxim’s motorcycle, I hesitate. Is he just pretending to be nice, and when I get on, he’ll actually kidnap me to send me back into a sex trafficking ring?

Maxim notices. “I won’t hurt you. I really do want peace with your husband.”

All I can do is take him at his word; though I took Dimitri at his word, too, and he screwed me over. But I can tell Maxim isn’t Dimitri. There’s an honesty to his expression I trust.

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