Page 113 of Sinful Promise

Roman hands me a lemon drop. His martini is garnished with a stick of olives. “Let’s find everyone, shall we?”

I nod and scan the room. Alex is chatting with Nadia, and I give him a stern look for fraternizing with Roman’s ex.

“Hello, Nadia,” Roman says, his tone coolly polite.

“Roman, I see you’ve become engaged.” Nadia gives me a cold look. She’s stunning in an alluring dress and no bra. She’s rail thin, almost hipless, and her jewelry looks heavy on her slender neck. I almost feel sorry for her. “The lack of replies to my texts suggested that you were otherwise engaged.” She looks me up and down. “I didn’t think you were the marrying type.”

“I wasn’t until now.” He nods at her and walks away.

I hear Alex murmur an apology, and then he’s on Roman’s heels. “Everything at the house is being taken care of,” he says, “and a tip will be dropped off to the police as soon as it’s finished.”

“Great, thank you, Alex.”

Alex catches up to me with a grin. “I hear congratulations are in order.”

“How did everyone know so quickly?”

“Oh, Roman did a press release, and it hit social media. Nadia couldn’t miss your ring. No one can.” He winks at Roman. “Impeccable taste, if I say so myself.”

“Are you referring to the woman or the ring?” Roman asks.

“Both.”

“Thank you.” Roman sounds smug.

“I wish Katsia were here,” I lament.

“She’ll have to come to see us.”

“Really?” I take a sip of my delicious drink. I hope we’ll be eating soon. I’m starving. I snag a cracker with caviar topping and nibble on it.

“Anytime,” Roman says. “She didn’t know Albert was playing her. Vlad is a wealth of information.”

“What’s my brother going to do now?”

“Lie low, for the moment. We’re getting him a new name. He can’t be the only one who survived the events. It would look suspicious. We’ll take him in and see where he fits.”

“Really? He wants to work for you?”

“It’s what he knows. Granted, he won’t move up the ladder, but he can make a decent living. He saved our asses.”

“That needs to be rewarded. How did you know Albert was bad?” We pause beside a magnificent column. Alex is on his phone, texting.

“The information he gave us didn’t match the number our man in Belarus gave us. When I said we had a source on the ground, we were already working on finding Vlad. We slipped a phone on him and a note for a meeting.

“How James Bond of you,” I joke.

“Mm. Well, we aren’t new to the game.” He takes a long sip of his drink.

My eyes drift from Roman’s handsome face to a pair of familiar faces.

“Aren’t you a sight,” Francesca says. She’s covered the bruises she received earlier tonight in her battle with three men using artfully applied makeup.

“How are you feeling?” I inquire.

“A bit sore, but overall, pretty good.” Her gown is dark blue, and she fills it perfectly. It clings to her in all the right places.

“Irina, you look fantastic.” We give each other an air kiss on each cheek.

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