Page 134 of Dirty Grovel

DREW:If you don’t do as I ask, I will destroy your sister and everything she holds dear. Then Oleg Pavlov, his Bratva, and the whole of Palm Beach will see the two of you for what you really are. Trash. Whores. Poison in the water.

I hand Sydney back her phone in disgust.

“What did I ever see in that bastard?” I mutter to myself, turning back to the windows.

“I don’t want you to lose what you’ve built with Oleg, Sutton. Isn’t there some way you can convince him to just… let Drew go?”

I spin around, amazed at her naiveté. “Are you serious?”

She flinches back. “Sutton… he means business.”

“Yeah? Well, so do I,” I spit. “Even if we meet his demands and give him what he wants, he’ll never go away, Sydney. He will hold his so-called ‘ammunition’ over our heads for as long as there is breath left in his body.”

Sydney looks down, her lip trembling precariously.

“No,” I continue, “meeting his demands won’t work. The only way to rid ourselves of him is to fight back.” Slowly, a plan starts unfolding in my head. A map to salvation. “And I think I know how.”

Sydney swallows. “Sutton… are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

I nod, determination cementing itself in the set of my jaw. The thing is, my plan requires convincing a certain stubborn Bratva beast to let me do two essential things.

One—lay the trap.

And two—play the bait.

“Yes, I am,” I tell Sydney as my spine hardens. “This princess is done running from monsters. It’s time for me to become one.”

42

OLEG

From her sweet lips come forth the kind of plan that I might have concocted in the dark recesses of my office.

I can’t believe what I’m hearing.

She stands before me, the very picture of demure grace, her blue eyes sparkling, her mouth parted, her chin set.

But the words that come out of her are the words of a seasoned professional. A ruthless, merciless mafia queen who will stop at nothing to achieve her goals.

And her goals are vicious.

She wants revenge. Payback. Retaliation.

If that were all she was after, I’d have been surprised but not shocked.

Except that’snotall she’s after.

Which is why I’m standing here, with my jaw on the floor, staring at this familiar face giving voice to decidedly unfamiliar motives.

Because my sweet, innocent Sutton, the woman who plays dress up with toddlers and quotes Disney movies, has just proposed murder with the casual flair of a trained assassin.

Worst of all, my pregnant fiancé wants to play bait for her psychotic ex.

Un-fucking-believable.

“No,” I growl. The words escape me with artic control but inside, I’m a volcano on the verge of erupting. “Absolutely fucking not.”

No way am I exposing my woman to that worthless cockroach, Drew.

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