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“Here. Use this.” Eloise shrugged out of her suit jacket and handed it to me to use on Savannah’s gushing wound. She moved to Chess’s side and placed both hands on the gunshot wound on her thigh and pushed down with all her might. “You’re going to be okay, Chess. Just stay calm.”

Stay calm.

I repeated those two words as the world descended into chaos around us.

Stay calm.

Savannah’s shaking hand gripped my wrist. Her eyes were wide with fear. “Don’t let me die like this.”

“You’re not going to die.” I wouldn’t allow it. I refused to lose my friend. “You’re going to be fine. We’ll get you to the hospital and you’ll be fine.”

“Tell him—.” Savannah’s teeth began to chatter, and her face seemed pale and gray under her blush and lipstick. “Tell Gabe...”

“Savvy?” I pushed harder on her wound, desperate to keep every drop of blood in her body. “Savvy, who is Gabe? Savannah!”

Her eyelid fluttered, and she passed out cold right there on the concrete. A puddle of blood grew around her, and I began to sob hysterically as I tried to give my friend the best chance at survival.

“Just hold on, Savvy. Please hold on.”

Chapter Ten

“Willyoustoppacing?You’re going to wear a hole in Vivian’s rug and then I’ll never hear the end of it.” Nikolai scowled up at Ten from the floor where he played with his son. Lev slammed two brightly colored blocks together while his father stacked the rest of the set into neat little towers.

“Prostite.” Ten slumped down onto the overstuffed love seat and picked up a board book from the cushion. He made a face when his fingers encountered the gummy wetness of saliva-soaked paper. “Looks like it’s time for a new copy ofGoodnight, Moon.”

Nikolai frowned. “That’s the third one.” He turned his attention to Lev who was happily knocking over the towers his father had finished. Gently, he gathered the boy close and managed to coax the child to open his mouth. “Yes, there it is. Another tooth. Lev, you have a million teething toys in this house. You don’t have to gnaw on books like a little mouse.”

The baby laughed and chewed on his father’s finger. Nikolai reacted with exaggerated pain which made Lev laugh even harder. Nikolai nuzzled Lev and began to tease him about being a little mouse.

Ten watched the pair together and tried not to think about how much he wanted a family. It had always been a fuzzy future goal. Fall in love. Get married. Buy a house. Have kids. When he had gone to prison, that fuzzy goal had faded to near nothing. Now, he was so close to freedom that he was actually starting to think about the future and all the possibilities it held.

Possibilities he wanted to share with Nisha.

Last night had been a dream. He truly hadn’t planned on even trying to kiss her again. He hadn’t wanted her to feel any pressure or obligation toward him. But then she had looked at him with those big, brown eyes, and he had fallen head-first into an abyss of need and want. Once she made it clear that her consent flag was flying high, he succumbed to his desperate desire for her.

The sex had been incredible. By far, the best of his life—and he’d fucked a lot of women. But what he shared with Nisha had eclipsed those other experiences. There was just something about the way she looked at him, the way she kissed him, the way she held onto him, that left him dizzy and damn near giddy.

But those scars.

Jesus Christ, those scars.

Burns. Knife wounds. Ligature marks. Gunshot wounds. Surgical repairs. Her poor body had been battered and abused unlike any he had ever seen.

Ten’s heart ached at the thought of her being so young and scared, completely alone with that fucking monster. How had Nicky allowed that sort of damage to happen to his niece? There was no way that had gone unnoticed. Not years of torment like that.

Why hadn’t anyone helped her?

“Ten.” Nikolai spoke his name loudly. “You okay?”

“Uh...yeah.” Ten set aside the book and cleared his throat. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

Nikolai regarded him with suspicion. “Tell me.”

He shook his head. “It’s nothing.”

“It’s Nisha.” Nikolai knew, of course. He could read faces as easily as a book. “Tell me.”

“Her body,” Ten said, his gaze settling on innocent, chubby Lev who crawled toward Stasi. The Great Dane opened one eye as the baby drew near and huffed a dramatic sigh. The dog’s temperament was so good around the boy, but his huge size meant that even a light smack of his paw could bruise Lev.

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