Page 72 of Sweet Deception
While she types away, I pace around the room on foot, flicking my lighter open and closed. We haven’t broached the subject of what happened earlier, and it’s like there’s an elephant sitting next to her, glaring down at me.
Still, the longer I circle Nika’s orbit, the more I realize what a haven she is from the chaos I create. She’s precise and controlled. She’s intense and focused. I’ve been described in similar ways, but she’s different. And beautiful? That term doesn’t even begin to cover it.
She’s incredibly strong, but I can also see where she’s vulnerable, delicate.
Everything I’ll ultimately destroy if she stays close.
I watch her trace properties through shell companies as all the women I know who’ve tried to escape this life flash through my mind.
My own mother couldn’t handle the violence. I’ll never forget her defeated expression the night she left home, her blue eyes flashing with bitter remorse.
Harper Brennan flew across an ocean to escape an arranged marriage to Finn. Kiara De Luca dove out of a moving car to flee from our family. Unlike my mother, they eventually returned, but the original impulse to flee existed.
To say that the brutal lives we lead chase women off would be the understatement of the century. But my carefully crafted persona as the family’s chaos agent—the one who mocks death with a twisted smile on my face—hasn’t scared Nika away. Not yet.
She wasn’t afraid to approach me either.
No matter how reckless, crazy, and violent I’ve acted, she hasn’t feared me. Not the way she should have. The way anyone else would have.
And now, in the tight quarters of this safe house, she doesn’t evade me or keep her distance. Instead, she eats my food with a twinkle in her eye. She sits next to me. When I touch her, she touches me back. She even…moans my name.
Memories from earlier sizzle through me.
The vibration against my leg breaks my focus, reminding me that I put my phone on silent mode to help Nika concentrate. I glance at the screen expecting a message from Finn, but it’s Cian.
Found evidence of Veronika communicating with women from the De Luca and Red Hill families. Multiple encrypted conversations. Shane and Donal heading your way.
I glare at the phone screen, clicking my lighter faster in my opposite hand.
I need to deal with this. My emotions don’t matter.
Whether I like it or not.
“Why were you talking to women from rival families?”
She freezes mid-keystroke.
I close the distance between us and pull the laptop from the hacktress’s hands. She doesn’t fight me. A bad sign.
So, it’s true.
I ignore the flush of heat that blasts through me when her irises meet mine. Before she can mask it, I glimpse a flicker of fear in her eyes. “They’re my clients, that’s why.”
“Clients?”
“Women hire me if they need to disappear.” She folds her hands in her lap, dropping her gaze for a moment. “Women trapped in dangerous situations who want out but can’t do it alone. I help them. And yes, sometimes those situations involve…certain families.”
“You help them disappear…” My voice trails off as her words sink in.
For a moment, I’m entirely thrown.
Vulnerability claws at my insides as memories of my own mother return. The night she left the family… Did she have someone like Veronika Kotova aiding her on the other side?
“Do these women give you information about their families?”
“No, nothing.” She shakes her head slowly, as though any sudden movements might set me off. “I have nothing to do with them other than providing new identities. I just help women vanish. That’s all.”
I want to believe her. I need to.
