Page 62 of Ruthless Rebel

Redemption.

That sounds like a bittersweet notion I don’t deserve but want so badly my soul yearns for it.

Could it be so simple? It still feels selfish.

“That’s what you need to think about. How about I hold fire with my list, and you get back to me when you’re home? We can take things from there.”

I run a hand over my beard and nod. “Alright, and thanks.”

“No worries. FYI, Knight looks like he’s starting to question things.” Luc quirks a hard brow and clasps his fingers together.

“I know. Has he said anything to you?”

“Not so much, but he thinks it’s strange he hasn’t met yourgirl. It’s going to get real hard for me very soon if you don’t pick someone, and I’m starting to feel like I’m coming between you guys. You’re brothers, and I’m your best friend. Apart from when the shit hit the fan way back when with River’s dad, this is the only time I’ve had to keep a secret between you two. Please don’t make things harder for me.”

“I hear you, and I won’t.”

“Cool, so, take my damn advice and pick River.”

I give him a stiff smile.

My phone buzzes with a message, and I look away. I retrieve the phone from my pocket and look at the home screen, my interest piquing when I realize the message is from Zeke, my contact from the underground who I asked to get more information on River’s ex-fiancé.

I open the message, and the pit of my stomach fills with rocks when I read what he’s sent me.

Her ex is Sasha Konstantin. He’s in prison in Russia on an eight-year sentence for drug trafficking, but he’ll likely get out a LOT sooner. His godfather is Dmitiev Pertrinkov, who has ties to the Russian mafia.

I found details which suggest that Sasha’s debtors came after River when he went to prison. They took her captive. They demanded half a million from her aunt.

That’s all I got. Let me know if you need any more intel.

Each word in the message pierces my mind, but reading that River was taken captive—as in kidnapped—sends undiluted rage rippling through me.

Fuck.

River went through shit. She went through actual fucking shit, and God knows what else her ex-fiancé did to her. That motherfucking bastard.

She could have been killed.

Sasha Konstantinis lucky he’s in fucking prison, but I still want to hurt him, and I don’t give a shit who he is or whose godson he is.

Everything I previously discovered about River and Gina adds up now.

It all culminated into the disaster they’re in today where the two of them need my help.

“Everything okay?” Luc asks, looking me over.

“Yeah. It’s okay.” It will be. I know what I have to do.

I’m taking River up on her offer, or rather, I’ll make hermyoffer, with the workaround that I won’t be selfish about it, even if her being my wife helps me.

My plans still stand the same as they would if she were any other woman.

Look but don’t touch.

This is business, not a real relationship.

We just need to look real to those who need to believe we’re legit. Like my grandfather and the rest of my family.

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