A car turns onto the street ahead, and like all my prayers are answered, I realize it is a taxi, its light on. I wave my arms frantically, nearly sobbing with relief when it slows. I yank open the door and throw myself inside before the driver can protest.
"Drive.” The word comes out as a shriek.
"Lady, I…"
"Now.Please, please, just drive."
“Where to?”
“Vine Street…please hurry.”
Maybe it's the terror in my voice, or maybe he sees the men rounding the corner behind us, but he hits the gas. The taxi fishtails slightly on the wet road, then finds traction and speeds forward.
I twist in my seat, looking back through the rear window. The three men have stopped in the middle of the street, watching us go. One of them is already lifting a phone to his ear.
But it's the one in the center who holds my gaze. The shooter.The stranger. Even at this distance, our gazes meet.
And I can see the small, cold smile curving his mouth.
2
NIKOLAI
I watch the taillights disappear into the light drizzle, two red dots fading into the darkness of downtown Seattle.
Well, that was unfortunate.
I remove a handkerchief from my jacket and wipe the blood from my hands with methodical precision. The metallic smell doesn't bother me. The fact that Holly just witnessed this doesn’t bother me. Nothing much does. I don’t rattle easily, because men who do don't survive in my world. They make mistakes that get them killed.
I'm known for my calmness. And it’s this unshakeable control that has made me an integral part of The Six. A union of six powerful crime families that control every coast and major city of the United States. Four men and two women who wield so much power and money it can bend the fate of the world with just one phone call.
"Boss?" Alexei, my driver and bodyguard, shifts beside me, waiting for orders.
I take my time folding the handkerchief, tucking it back into my pocket. A witness is a complication, but complications can behandled. They always can. And I certainly won’t mind handling Holly.
Her face flashes through my mind. Those big eyes wide with fear. The soft gasp from her plush lips.
I wonder what she'll look like when I find her. Because Iwillfind her. And Iwilldeal with her.
The thought sends a surge of heat through me, and I adjust my stance slightly, not surprised by my body's reaction when I think about her. By the way my mind keeps returning to the way she crushed her teeth into her luscious lip when we were talking, and the wave of lust it sent straight to my cock when she did.
Focus.
It’s only a matter of time before someone else stumbles onto this scene. Dmitri, my right-hand man, is already on the phone organizing a clean-up crew. In minutes, the body will be gone, and this scene will be sanitized.
Dmitri ends his call, and I turn to my men.
“Find her.”
3
HOLLY
I have to call the police.
But in the worst poor timing ever, my phone has died, and the cab driver doesn’t want to hear about a murder and keeps shaking his head and telling me I’m mistaken when I tell him what I saw.
So I have to wait until I get to my apartment to make a call from the landline.
