Page 13 of Lethal Hearts

“You prefer me in a suit?” Mikhail asked, approaching her.

He placed one callused and inked hand on her cheek. His touch burned and she found herself leaning against him. Mikhail curled one muscled arm around her waist, tugging her close. Feeling bold, she rose on tiptoe to kiss him. He responded, leaving her a tad breathless.

After recovering her breathing, she answered his question.“You look good in jeans as well,” she said, making him laugh.We could make this work, Harper thought.

Half an hour later, they were on their way to the hospital. The two men Mikhail assigned to guard her father had done their job well so far, because there were no further incidents. After the driver dropped them off at the entrance, Harper touched her fiancé’s arm.

“I’d like some private time with him first,” she told him.

“Very well, I’ll get us some coffee,” Mikhail said.

“Thank you,” she said.

They parted ways and Harper made her way to the fourth floor, where the private suites were. She spotted Raul, one of the bodyguards Mikhail assigned to watch her father. Raul was arguing with Amber. Jack, the second bodyguard, wasn’t around. Harper assumed he was either taking a break or in the men’s room.

“How many times do I have to tell you that smoking’s not allowed in the corridors?” Amber was saying.

Raul gave Harper a wink. Harper rolled her eyes. She knew Raul had a thing for the nurse. She pushed her way past them. For a second, she stood in front of her father’s door.

Harper suddenly felt incredibly nervous. The last conversation she and her father had ended in a fight. Harper had wanted to leave the city, to start somewhere fresh since their house was practically as good as gone. Alfonso told her she was betraying the familia.

She raised her fist to knock, then decided,screw it. Harper pushed her way inside. She found her father watching TV. Seeing her, he turned the TV off and gestured for her to come forward.

Harper sat in the armchair next to the bed. Her father reached out for her hand. She stared at it for a few seconds before closing her fingers over his. Harper couldn’t even remember the last time they hugged or exchanged any sort of physical affection.

“I’m alive, thanks to you,” he said. Harper was glad he spoke first, because she didn’t know the first thing to say to him.

“Thanks to Mikhail,” she said.“Without his help, the two of us would probably be dead in an alleyway right now.”

Alfonso frowned, then gripped her hand harder.“Harper, tell me it’s not true. That you agreed to wed this man, in exchange for saving us?”

She was puzzled by his reaction.“I thought you would be proud of me for making such a beneficial arrangement.”

“My daughter, I know we’ve never been close but that man is a monster,” he whispered.“I fear you’ve paid a steep price for our lives.”

“Mikhail’s not so bad,” she immediately answered.“Besides, he could have had me killed for trying to pull a gun on him but he didn’t.”

“Tell me everything,” Alfonso said, a plea in his voice.

It occurred to Harper that he suddenly seemed so old to her. She knew her father had been getting on in years but it seemed he’d aged a decade while being Don Juan’s captive.

A polite knock came on the door. She thought it would be Mikhail or one of his men but it was none of them. Don Juan Garcia strolled in, completely alone.

Harper froze, releasing her father’s hand. She rose to her feet and looked desperately around the room for anything she could use as a weapon. She knew her and her father’s lives depended on her actions the next few seconds.

In the background, she heard Amber and Raul’s voices. Something in her mind clicked as she remembered thinking Amber sounded nervous on the phone. Nothing was coincidence. Amber was a distraction, she thought, feeling light-headed and foolish. Harper wasn’t born yesterday.

She knew how men like Don Juan, Mikhail, and her father operated. Did Don Juan somehow pay or threaten her to take Raul’s attention from Harper and her father?

Harper snatched the nearest object to her—the metal clipboard. Don Juan looked at her for a few moments, then laughed in her face. Anger surged through her veins, making Harper conveniently forget all her fears.

This was the bastard who took her and her father from their home. This jerk made her an ultimatum—kill Mikhail or never see her father again.

Don Juan only made her that offer because the chances of her succeeding were close to zero. He probably never anticipated Mikhail’s bout of craziness.

“Are you planning to kill me using that, Harper?” Don Juan asked mildly.

“I think I have pretty good odds. You’re all alone,” she said in a vehement voice Harper barely recognized. Even Don Juan startled a little.“You don’t have your men to hide behind.”

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