Page 36 of Stephan

This was stupid. Brand was standing in frontof me and Derick was close behind me. I was sandwiched between thetwo. I could see the car and frustrated with this silliness Istepped away from the guys and moved onto the walkway. “This isstupid, guys. I’m not playi—”

A loud fireworks bang sounded around me and Iwas tackled by Brand as he covered me with his body and yelled,“Owen, I need back up now. We need to get the packages to safety.David is in the car on standby.”

I tried to look around Brand’s body but hewas so big I only caught glimpses of the surroundings. My heart wasabout to beat out of my chest and my body ached. I was terrified.We were being shot at.

Brand slowly lifted me and hunched over me ashe rushed to the car where he opened the door and shoved me in.“Stay down.” I did as he instructed and Derick climbed in next tome.

“Keep down, Jade. David is going to get usout of here.”

Who was David and what was going on? I wantedto say something but my brain and my mouth wouldn’t cooperate. Ilay down in the car while David sped us away.

I don’t know how long I laid there in thecar. I was scared. I wished Stephan was with me. I promised that ifI got out of this I’d give Stephan a chance. Tears rolled down mycheek and I prayed I got out of this.

“You can both sit up now. Brand just calledme to say we’re in the clear.”

I couldn’t move. I felt Derick get up, but Icouldn’t. Feeling sorry for myself, I lay there and wallowed in mybad luck and pitiful life. Why couldn’t anything go right forme?

“Jade, you can sit up.” Derick patted myback.

Shaking my head, I curled into a ball andcried.

“No, no. Jade, please don’t cry.We’re safe now. David,Brand, and Owen won’t let anything happen to us.”

Who was Owen? I only knew about David andBrand. “What’s happening?” I whispered.

“Argh, Stephan owes me big time.” Derickeased me up. “Are you sure you want to hear it from me? I mean,Stephan should be the one telling this to you.”

Derick was right but I needed something tothink about other than what just happened—almost getting shot. “Wehave time.”

“Has Stephan told you what my family does fora living?”

“You buy things. I know your dad was buyingan apartment building. Stephan said your family has your hands in abit of everything.”

“That’s about right. The Silverman’s are anold money family. We originate from Russia. The story goes we fledwith everything we could when the royal family was killed. Wechanged our name to English. The rest as they say is history.”

I raised my eyebrow. I knew he wasn’t tellingme everything. “That’s why you need the bodyguards and people shootat you?”

“Well, we sometimes piss people off when webuy things or sell something. Also people think if they kidnap oneof us they can get a ransom.” Derick shrugged like everything he’djust told me wasn’t a big thing.

“So why were they shooting at me too? I’m nota Silverman.”

“Yes you are.”

“I may be living with you, but I’m not aSilverman.”

“You’re a Silverman now. Stephan claimed you.You’re his, which makes you a Silverman forever.”

“You do know your brother’s reputation?”

“Yep. But there’s another thing Stephanshould have told you, but now it looks like I’m going to have to.When a Silverman finds their one, their soul mate, they neverstray. The Silvermans have what Stephan calls a curse, I call it agift. The story is in the old country we helped save a group ofgypsies, and they gifted us with prosperity and the ability to knowour soul mate. Great, you say, well they forgot to mention when wefind our soul mate we turn into possessive cavemen.”

“So you’re saying I’m Stephan’s soul mate?” Ihighly doubted what Derick was saying, but it was keeping my mindoff everything that happened.

“That’s what I’m saying. So when he wasgetting rid of that chick, he was doing it because there is noother woman now for Stephan other than you.”

“Uh-huh, if you say so.” I don’t know if Ibelieved Derick but it would be nice.

*****

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