Page 37 of Cruel Longing

“Shit, Amara. What happened to business and pleasure staying separate?”

I glared at him over my cocktail glass. “Business is one thing. Destroying my organization is something entirely different. Blocking the Crescent Towers deal will do exactly that. I know you’re angry about the loan your father took from me. But that’sbetween you and your family. He made that decision. He came to me. It wasn’t the other way around.”

“The payments are outrageous,” he argued.

“See? It goes back to the same thing. You’re angry that he made a bad business deal and I’m the one who bailed him out. Your ego can’t take it. This is how my Capos operate. This is how business is run on loans and interests. Rent. Shipping costs. I am profitable,” I hissed.

“Who said anything about my ego?” He stood tall. I had to stop the way my body responded to his athletic frame. It seemed as if every muscle in his arms rippled when he took a step toward me. I had nowhere to go, pinned against the chaise. I stood my ground, jutting my chin forward. I dared him to try to kiss me again.

I huffed. “Believe me. As the only woman on top in this town, I’ve dealt with plenty of male egos. Yours isn’t new.”

“You know nothing else about me? You’re going to paint me as any other Bratva family? Really?” He stopped inches from me. Close enough I could smell the cologne on his skin. Damn it. He smelled incredible. “I’m the Pakhan. When I left New Orleans I was just the Sovietnik. You remember that?”

“Why can’t you separate business from us? It seems messy for you. Why is that hard for you?” I wondered how mean I could be. How far I could tear him down. How far I could push him from me.

“Because it should be the same thing.” His hand curved against my cheek. My eyes never left his. “We should be on the same side for once. Not fighting. Not carrying on the fucked-up legaciesour fathers left behind. Weren’t we supposed to be different? Weren’t we going to change everything? Couldn’t we still?”

The rain pelted the window while the broken shutter clattered against the house. The sound distracted me. My head jerked to the side. Luka slid into place, his hand snaking around my waist.

“You haven’t told me why you did it.” I stared at him, wanting this to be different so badly it hurt between my ribs. My head hurt. My body ached. He had wounded me over and over. I couldn’t believe him now, no matter what he said.

“For the tech,” he answered. “It’s all I have. The only way to rebuild the Novikov empire. It wasn’t about you. It was for me. For my family. For my name. I had to have a way to make something out of what my father destroyed. You are just the collateral damage, love.”

I blinked. “What?”

“My father invested in a small tech firm before he died. It was unorthodox for him. He never did shit like that. I started looking into it with Viktor. Do you have any idea what this tech does?”

I shook my head. It was something I’d been trying to find out. “No.” Was he going to tell me? Enzo had come up empty for days.

His thumb stroked the side of my cheek. I tried to ignore it. Cut myself off from the spark it ignited in my blood.

“It’s going to sound crazy. I thought my father had lost his damn mind, but I did the research. I had Viktor do even more. It’s a radar device used on shipwrecks.”

“Shipwrecks?” What the hell was he talking about?

“I know. Crazy, right? But, oceanographers use the developmental tech for studying reefs. Anyway, there are hundreds of sunken ships in the Gulf. Whoever uses the tech to identify what’s on the ships owes a percentage of the findings’ profit to me.”

I blinked. “Are you saying you’re in the treasure hunting business?” It sounded absurd. Like something out of an adventure book. It didn’t seem like something Luka would invest in. Why did he stand so close to me? Why was he touching me? His breath seemed even, while my pulse was erratic.

“You have a way of sounding like a non-believer.”

“Excuse my skepticism.” I raised an eyebrow.

“Hey, I’m not the one out there on dives. I just fund the production. I sign contracts and take in a hefty profit if they find anything, whether it goes to a museum or a private collection. You want to call me a treasure hunter. I’ll take that.”

I twisted my lips together. “Why did your tech investment have to block the Crescent Towers? Why take out the senators I need for my gambling license?”

“Honestly?”

“Yes. That’s what I’m looking for. An honest answer, to a dirty deal.”

He sighed. “I found out too late about where those guys were on votes. It was unrelated. But it came down to what votes I needed, versus what you needed. I needed the bill to pass that said tech had a right to discovery. It was the only way to secure the investment.”

I bit the inside of my cheek, knowing I would have made the same decision. I would have done anything to pass my own bill, damn anyone who got in my way. Was that the truth? Could I believe him?

“Did I answer all your questions?” he asked.

Did it even matter?

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