Page 99 of Dark Deviant

Danil inches toward me. “Don’t you get it? Wherever you go is home to me. I left you once, and it was the worst mistake of my life. I won’t stand by and watch you leave me.”

“And you think you can come here, tell me you’ll follow us home, and then…what? I’m supposed to just fall at your feet?”

Danil’s lips curl into a grin. “Nope.”

I lift an eyebrow. “And you’re just going to leave your family and your responsibilities to come to New York??”

“Yep.” He reaches into his pocket, pulls out a small red velvet box, and flips open the top.

“Oh my God…” The glittering diamond nestled in the box winks at me. I gingerly reach a finger toward it. Is it the most gorgeous mirage I’ve ever seen? Or is it actually real?

“I’ve known you for a week. And I didn’t need any more time than that to realize how much I need you in my life. You and Daniela. You’re my family now. Wherever you go, I go. And I’ll happily follow you all over the world if it means we can be together.” His lips lift into a smile. “Starting with Carnegie Hall.”

My jaw hits the scuffed tile floor. Words escape me, my heart fluttering in my chest like it’s being carried by a swarm of butterflies. All I can do is stare between Danil and the ring.

He raises a hand to the side of my face. It smells sweet, like chocolate. “I shouldn’t have let you kick me out the way you did because you needed to hear how I really feel about you. I love you, Larysa. I love everything I know and everything I’m going to find out.”

I press my hand over his and breathe deeply. “Were you at Natasha’s today? Did she bake more brownies?”

He chuckles. “That’s where your mind is right now? Dessert?”

“I haven’t eaten since breakfast.” I smile.

“Do I seriously need to feed you to get an answer to my question?”

I cock my head to the side, furrowing my brow. “I didn’t get a question out of all that.”

Danil drops to one knee and pulls the ring from the box. He holds it out, the facets glimmering in the fluorescent lights. “Larysa, will you—?”

“Mama!”

We both jump at the same time. Daniela’s petrified shriek pierces the air.

“Holy shit, Bohdan’s got her,” Petro grunts.

“No,” I cry out. A battered man with a baseball cap pulled low over his eyes and a long dark trench coat pulls Daniela toward an emergency exit door right outside of the duty-free shops. Hadeon spins around at the register with a pile of magazines in his hand. He drops them and takes off after Bohdan.

“Help! Someone please help us! He has my daughter!” I run in their direction, so hard and so fast that my calves burn like they’re engulfed in flames. My chest tightens, my lungs ready to burst. Danil speeds past me, Petro right behind him.

“We have to get her. He can’t take her from us,” I scream.

Bohdan moves fast for a guy as broken as he is. I catch a glimpse of a shattered bottle in his hand. He holds it to Daniela’s throat. When he looks back, he yells, “You left me for dead. Now you’ll all pay.” With a forceful shove, he pushes open the door. Security guards come running in our direction, but Bohdan is already out of sight. Danil picks up speed and is the next one out the door.

Seconds stretch until it feels like hours have passed. My leg muscles tense and twitch, my knees wobbling as I push open the door. My pulse jumps into my throat and slams against it with relentless force.

Danil stands still in the stairwell, not making a move. Bohdan has the jagged edge of the glass bottle against Daniela’s throat. “I want the key,” he grunts. “Now!”

“I don’t have it,” I say, my voice cracking.

“Liar. Give me the key or I cut her throat.” A dot of blood appears on Daniela’s skin. She screams.

“I know there’s money in that safety deposit box. I heard them all talking about it after they snatched me,” Bohdan growls. “You all fucked me over. Didn’t give a shit if I lived or died. Now you pay. The key!”

“I swear, I don’t—"

Danil dives to the ground and sweeps Bohdan’s legs out from under him so quickly, if I blinked, I’d have missed it. Bohdan goes down, the bottle falling from his fingers. Danil grabs it before it shatters. He steps on Bohdan’s neck and stabs him with the sharp glass.

Danil bends down to hug Daniela close, her sobbing tearing my soul in two.

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