That's the difference between us. I'm an expert at controlling my expressions. It's not easy to shake me.
“You didn't bring me here to negotiate.”
“No. There’s no possible deal we could make. I gave you every opportunity to let her go.”
“You’re going to kill me for a whore? Destroy your future, risk lifelong persecution from my family so you can keep a snake, your enemy's daughter, in your bed?”
“You’ll never leave her alone. I don’t consider this murder but suicide.”
He doesn't even seem to have heard the last part. “No, I won’t rest until I have her. You’ll never have peace. I’ll destroy you, Lykaios, and then, when you are dead, I’ll come after her. I intended to trade her as soon as I was satisfied, but I've just changed my mind. I’ll keep her for a long time. I will remind her every day of the mistake she made in rejecting me."
Before he knows it, my hands are on his neck. “Elina is going to be my wife. The mother of my children.”
“You are a dead man, Odin.”
I can still read his lips as his life slowly slips away.
“No. You are.”
Odin
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
There'snothing in my body that says I've just killed someone. I'd like to say that I'm shaken somehow, but that would be a lie.
I would do it all again. And again. And again.
After what he said, I couldn't stop until I killed him.
No one will take her from me.
I've walked a lifetime amidst loneliness and hatred, and now that I've found my private heaven, the person capable of calming the demons I have hidden in my soul, I could never allow that bastard to take her.
“Don’t worry about anything. I’ve already called my cousin, and he’s sent a cleaning crew. There will be no trace of what happened.”
“He's not a nobody. There is no way to hide the disappearance of a sheik.”
“Odin, you have my word that no one will ever find his body.”
I look at the man whom I trust as much as I trust Christos. I know the cousin Grigori refers to has ties to the Russian mob. “I won't do any favors in return. I could take care of this myself.”
I don't want any link to the mafia. I know exactly what kind of business they do: human trafficking, arms smuggling, and drug dealing. Nothing I wish to have any involvement with.
“He doesn't know that the problem he'll be taking care of has anything to do with you. He thinks he’s doing me a personal favor.”
Grigori is one of the most loyal people I've ever met, yet I'd still rather not have the help of a mobster.
“Besides, I don't believe you could resolve everything as efficiently as he will. He’s had many years of practice,” he continues, seeming oblivious to my closed expression.
I'm not really worried. I’ll face whatever comes. The only thing I want right now is to see her. Make sure she’s safe.
“Who's with her?”
The sudden change of subject doesn't faze him.
“Only the best. Your wife is fully armored.”
I open the apartment door and go straight to our room.