Page 38 of Beast

“Boss,” Rex called out. “Someone here to see you. It’s about Natalia.”

Her father sat at his desk, studying me with a wary expression, staring at me over the barrel of a pistol. It was as though he’d aged thirty years since I last saw him, which was only last year. His once brown hair had turned gray. His brown eyes, which usually shone, had turned almost black with shadows surrounding them. He had so many lines on his face, like he hadn’t slept in weeks. I remembered Natalia telling me that he’d killed his own brother. I wondered if he really cared about anyone, including his own daughter.

“I should fucking kill you. You have Natalia. You have my baby,” he growled, confirming what I suspected, that he did care about his daughter.

I ignored his accusations and got down to the reason I came here in the first place.

“Who wants Natalia dead?” I said, clenching my teeth. “Is it Ilya?” That had been my best guess as he would want to push her father into going mental with her death.

“What are you talking about? I thought you may have her, but then I doubted it. If you did, then you wouldn’t have the balls to come here.”

“You tell me,” I said. “They think she’s a liability. And they’ve ordered me to take care of her.”

He shook his head as his face paled and he laid his gun on the desk between us.

“So what the fuck are you doing here, then?”

I was confused. I told him that I was ordered to kill his daughter, but instead of him thanking me for not doing it, he was questioning why I was here.

I hesitated. I had always done what the mafia asked of me, but this felt different. I couldn’t bring myself to hurt her.

He had to know she was an omega, but blurting out that I was an alpha werewolf might just get me killed. Best if I kept everything on the human-side of things.

“I don’t want her to be harmed,” I confessed. His eyes narrowed as he realized not only was I saving his daughter’s life but that there was more to this story. I wasn’t going to ask for her hand in marriage and all that shit, I was just going to stick to the plan, which was to save his daughter’s life.

“You do what you’re told. You always have, Tomas. But now something is different. You want me to stop you from killing her?”

I shook my head, as all my ideas of how this was going to go down had completely changed. Vladimir stood up from his desk as he looked me over from head to toe.

“Do you want me to thank you for saving my daughter’s life? Do you want to be a hero?”

“No,” I whispered. Not recognizing my own voice.

“I’m fucking losing patience. You’re not saying anything worth listening to, Tomas.” His eyes blazed with anger. “Where is she? You must bring her to me,” he said firmly.

Somehow, I knew I couldn’t do that. Not without talking to her first. I’d left her on the island with two of my best men waiting for my report. If something happened to me and I didn’t give them the safe word in an hour, they’d sail without me from the island and take Natalia somewhere safe.

I knew as soon as she walked into that cafe for our blind date, something in me had changed. I didn’t realize it was because the world I once knew and loved would be a thing of the past. I had to leave this life; seeing Vladimir had confirmed it for me. I’d saved his daughter’s life, and he should be on his knees thanking me. Not eyeing his gun and wondering whether to use it or not.

“I could have your brains blown out right here and now. My man has a gun pointed at your head.”

“And I could have killed her already.”

He chuckled. “If that was the case, you wouldn’t be here telling me everything that I already knew.”

Fuck!

No, I wasn’t going to be dragged into a conversation about who had the biggest balls. I came here to find a solution to stop Natalia from being killed, and I came to the one person who caused all this shit in the first place.

Her father. If he had just done his fucking job and promised to vote how we wanted, we wouldn’t be in this shit.

“No. We need to find out why Ilya ordered her death and who is behind it.” I kept my arms at my sides, even though I wanted to leap across the desk and choke him for putting her in danger like this.

“Where is she?”

“Safe.” I straightened. “I was ordered to kidnap her to make you vote for Ilya. But it doesn’t mean they’re responsible for the order.” I was paid by the highest bidder so I didn’t have sway either way, but my boss was like a toy ship in a swimming pool, moved by whoever made the biggest wave.

He glowered, but then nodded like he’d given me the upper hand. “All right. I’ll get some men on it and we’ll get some tongues loosening. What are you going to do?”

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