Page 82 of Beautiful Vengeance
Through the curtain of her hair, she saw Micah’s expression soften.“I know.We all get in over our head sometimes.It happens.Once your brothers take care of this asshole, you can get back to normal.”
Her hand closed around the base of the lamp.“That’s what you don’t understand,” she whispered.
“What?”Micah frowned and stood.“I didn’t catch that.”
“I said…” She dropped her voice even further, drawing him a step closer.Sloan brought the lamp up with all her strength and slammed it into the side of Micah’s head.She cried out as she did it, hating that she had to hurt him, but the alternative was out of the question.
He hit his knees, looking dazed, and she hit him again.She barely paused to listen to his groan before she grabbed his gun, leaped over him, and slammed the bedroom door.He wouldn’t stay down.She’d heard too many stories from Callie about how tough her main bodyguard was—how driven.
She had to get out of the Sheridan house before he roused enough to sound the alarm.
Sloan retraced her steps to the front door, her heart pounding with every second, expecting someone to appear and demand to know why she wasn’t where she was supposed to be.
But the house was eerily empty, her footsteps echoing on the hardwood floor.
This is what it will be like always if Jude isn’t able to stop Dmitri Romanov.
She couldn’t let him face that threat alone.
She just prayed she was in time.
A dark town car sat at the curb outside the house, and she slowed to a stop and stared.It was entirely possible that it belonged to the Sheridans—or even the O’Malleys—but some instinct made her walk toward it.She was painfully conscious of the gun in her hand, the metal warming against her skin.
The back window rolled down, and her breath caught in her throat.She’d only ever heard him described, but there was no way this attractive man with dark hair and eyes was anyone other than Dmitri Romanov.He motioned her closer with a hand marked with tattoos.“Sloan O’Malley.”His Russian accent made her name sound exotic.
She could run.She might even get half a block before he or his men caught her.If some well-meaning neighbor tried to interfere, she’d be signing their death warrant.That, more than anything, had her drifting closer.“Dmitri Romanov.”
“Smart girl.”
The temper that had awoken during her time with Jude roared to the forefront.She lifted the gun and pointed it at him.“What the hell is wrong with you?”
He didn’t so much as blink.“You’ll have to be more specific.”
“You tried to frame Jude.You are pushing a war with my brothers.You were going tokillCallie and her baby.”
Thatgot a reaction.He narrowed his eyes.“Baby…”
He didn’t know.That didn’t make it any more justifiable.He still had had every intention of murdering her friend.She braced the gun, her finger on the trigger.“I don’t care if you didn’t know Callie was pregnant.You’re still a monster.”
“Put that gun down before you hurt yourself.”
“I don’t think I will.”She wasn’t a murderer.She’d never given much thought to ending someone else’s life, even after Devlin died and she’d hated the Hallorans as much as she hated anything in this world.
But Dmitri Romanov had been the cause of so much misery for her family.No one would cry if he died.It might even be the act that allowed her and Jude to be free.
“Your man broke his word to me.”He said it casually, as if remarking on the weather.
“If you’re dead, there will be no one here to collect on that.”The gun was becoming heavy in her hands.She couldn’t hold it like this much longer.She had to decide.“I want to bargain.”
One corner of his mouth quirked up.“Do wonders never cease?”
She ignored that.“Let Jude go—let us both go—and I won’t shoot you.”
“Generous.”
“Take it or leave it.”She shifted her grip on the gun, hating the way her palms had gone sweaty.
“I have a counter offer.You and MacNamara leave.I’ll search for you, but I won’t search hard.After a reasonable amount of time, I’ll let you go—ifyou never come back to Boston or New York.”
