Page 1 of Walking Red Flag

MILENA + CUTTER

Life isn’t fair.

If anyone on Earth should know that, it’s Milena Semyonov.

She’s suffered blow after blow, and the hits just keep on coming.

Just when she’s sworn off being happy, that maybe being numb is the better way to navigate life, she meets him.

Cutter Carson Clayborne.

The man that finally shows her how a real man is supposed to treat her.

Just when she didn’t think life could get any worse, the man that abused her as a young, impressionable teen is back, showing her that life can, in fact, get worse.

When she’s ready to quit, Cutter is there, making sure that she knows that he’ll be there, whether she wants him there or not.

He is her husband, after all. And the unlikely pair have an understanding that they’ll stay married for two years, make a baby, and join two crime syndicates in unholy matrimony.

Cutter has other plans, though. He only agrees to the original plan to make her his.

He won’t ever give her up. What’s his stays his. And there’s not a man on the earth that’ll ever touch Milena again. Not with Cutter alive and able to take out anyone that tries.

I do more gagging than nagging if you love me right.

—Milena’s secret thoughts

MILENA

“I gotta go, Asher,” I said with a sigh. “Hazel is here to run with me.”

Asher rolled his eyes. “Of course she is. You go run instead of talking this out like an adult would.”

I gritted my teeth. “Asher, now is not the time. You knew that I was going running way before you started this discussion with me.”

“I did, but I didn’t think that you would refuse to talk to me about it. Why do you act like this?” he seethed.

“I promise that we’ll talk about it when I get back,” I repeated.

“Well, that’s not going to work for me, because I’m leaving on a business trip,” he grumbled. “I leave in an hour.”

“What?” I asked. “When did this happen?”

“While you were in the shower ignoring me. They asked last week if I wanted to go, I said no, because it was your birthday this weekend. Then you pulled this shit, and I told them I’d go.”

That just made me angry.

I narrowed my eyes at him and counted to ten in my head.

When I was calm enough to reply, I said, “Well, I hope you have a safe trip.”

He snorted and turned his back on me.

I shuffled to the door, wondering if I should just call it quits now.

It was obvious that this wasn’t working with Asher.

He was too…much.

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