Page 48 of Master

“And I apologize.” Ivan’s friend raises both hands in surrender. “She made it very clear that she wasn’t willing to come with me. I was just leaving.”

On the exterior, I look calm and collected. But internally, I’m a raging ball of panic. Every fiber of my being screaming, “Tell him!”

“Li—”

“Hey!” Liam shouts at Jorge. Realizing he accidentally cut me off, he mouthssorry, sweetheart,before laying into Jorge. “What the fuck? You were supposed to be keeping an eye on her for me.” The two of them argue, and my opportunity to tell Liam my truth dwindles with every word the they spit at each other.

“I’m so sorry,mo mhuirnín,” Liam apologizes when he finally finishes lambasting Jorge. “What were you going to say?”

Taking a deep breath, I prepare to share the secret I’ve been holding from him—from everyone—for the past six years.Opening my mouth, I expect nervous word-vomit but find silence instead.

He lives in the world you ran from.

He loves you.

He will understand.

“My name… I mean, I?—”

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

LIAM

Staring up at me, tears well in her eyes, and Sasha stammers,“My name… I mean, I?—”

Hearing the all-too-familiar muffled sounds of gunshots, I cut Sasha’s words short when I yank her from the barstool and pull her behind me.

I fucking knew it…

I don’t need to see Ivan’s face to know this is him.No one—except Finn—would be stupid or crazy enough to pull off shit like this.For all his bullshit about sharing this city and calling a truce, he wanted nothing more than to earn our trust so that he could infiltrate our lives with ease.

Club members scream, scurrying behind tables and toward emergency exits as a slew of armed men swarm our club. Ivan’s Russian accent-laced call billows over them all. “Malen’kayaprintsessa?”

I’ve got Sasha firmly wedgedbetween me and the bar to hide herfrom sight—and potential gunfire—with my body.

Drawn guns in hand, Tristan and Declan stalk toward an unfazed Ivan.“I see your word means very little,” Tristan gruffly opines, gesturing with the barrel of his gun for Ivan to return to the doors he just entered through.

“My word?” Ivan darkly laughs, his gaze leisurely wandering around the club as he walks further into it. Grabbing a recently vacated stool at the other end of the bar, he sits and helps himself to the freshly poured beer left behind.

Sasha fists the fabric of my shirt and buries her face into my back, further shielding herself from Ivan and his men. Reaching behind me, I place my hand on her hip and find her trembling. I squeeze her—silently tryingto lether know that I’ll do everything I can to keep her safe—as I turn slightly to further conceal her from the men gathering beside Ivan.

Tapping the muzzle of his gun on the bar, Ivan sincerely comments, “This is a nice fucking place you’ve got here.”

“Thanks,” Declan deadpans.

“And filled with such gorgeous fucking women.” Ivan’s looks around the room as he speaks. He’s looking for something or someone. “Pretty sure we all could have had a good time here, sharing some of these beauties. It’s a fucking shame you broke our agreement.”

“Funny, I don’t think it’s us who have just barged into your strip club,”I snark. “Butwe are the ones that broke the truce between us?”

“We agreed I would stay out of your business and you would stay out of mine,” Ivan reminds, staring back at me with anger. His stare is unwavering, and his nostrils flare with every heated breath he takes. He sure as fuck thinks we—or I—did something.

Ivan continues to glare at me as Tristan tries to calm the situation, “I assure you we have held our end of theagg?—”

“No!” Ivan interrupts Tristan with a roar, the heated flush of anger creeping up his tattooed neck as he slams the butt of his gun against the bar with enough force to chip the marble. He takes a second to get a grip on his anger and finally breaks our stare to return his attention to Tristan. “Do you not know what goes on in your own house? Is that how you run your operation?”

Tristan shakes his head, still as oblivious to Ivan’s ranting outburst as the rest of us. Ivan slides from his stool and calmly finishes the beer he helped himself to. Walking toward Tristan andDeclan,he glances in my direction and snarks, “You might need to confirm that with the rest of your brothers.”

Sasha lets out a soft, whimpered sigh from behind me and I squeeze her hip, praying she stays quiet and doesn’t draw his attention. I don’t get my wish, and he snaps his head to me, his narrowed eyes even more angry than before.

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