Despite everything, the challenge sent a thrill through Dmitri. He was a man who liked things in their place. He read people well enough that he could anticipate their moves with ease. There had been setbacks along the way, but he hadn’t been wrong yet.
Except when it came to Keira O’Malley.
The woman had surprised him at every turn, had pushed him to the limits of his control seemingly without effort. He wanted her—in a number of ways—and he had no business wanting her, future wife or no.
Then the rest of what Mikhail had told him penetrated. “You left her there alone.”
Mikhail gave a sharp shake of his head. “I left one of our men to watch her. To keep her safe.”
She had an uncanny ability to avoid her brother’s men and slip out unnoticed. It wasn’t in Dmitri’s interest to have her harmed, though he hadn’t yet fully dealt with the fact that the one most likely to harm Keira was Keira herself.
Her brother had cut her funds and threatened her cocaine dealers into blacklisting her, but Dmitri didn’t trust people who could be compromised for the sake of money. All it took for Dmitri to get things under control was making an example of the first one who defied O’Malley’s command and the others were too terrified to even go near her. She thought O’Malley was behind it, and Dmitri was content to let her keep believing that.
Other than ensuring that she wasn’t touched while drinkingherself into oblivion, there wasn’t much either he or O’Malley could do about the alcohol abuse currently. That would change the moment she and Dmitri were married.
It was nothing more than guarding a future investment.
He ignored the way the thought felt like a lie and refocused on the man in front of him. “I suppose I’ll have to pay her a personal visit.” Now.
Wasn’t that why I came to Boston tonight in the first place?
He found her exactly where Mikhail said she would be, holding court in the midst of what looked to be an orgy. Dmitri counted six couples in the immediate area around her, all in varying stages of fucking. Through it all, Keira stared off into the distance, untouchable. She lifted her head and looked at him as he stopped a few feet in front of her, as if she could sense his presence. “You.”
At least the music was several levels below deafening at this particular party. It wasn’t always the rule with the places she frequented. “You requested my presence.”
She arched her eyebrows. “And do you always come when you’re called? Like a good dog?” Her words were slightly slurred, courtesy of the vodka bottle dangling from her fingertips. Judging from its current level, she was well on her way to blacking out.
Irritation rose, as unwelcome as his attraction to this waif. If Keira would stop turning the blade on herself long enough, she might realize what a weapon she could be. He still hadn’t decided if he wanted to encourage that revelation or stifle it.
Dmitri had the unsettling thought that he might not be in control of which way that realization would swing. And he liked that he couldn’t begin to guess which way it would go.
He held out a hand. “Come with me.”
“Sorry, but that ship has sailed.” She looked at the bottle of vodka as if just registering that she was holding it. “You had your shot—twice, in fact—and passed. Third time might be a charm, but there’s not enough alcohol in this place to convince me to make a fool of myself over you—again.”
“You’re going to be my wife.” The words felt strange to say aloud to her, as if he were claiming her. He’d told Aiden that he’d allow Keira to make her own choice—and he would—but he’d never given his word that he wouldn’t orchestrate events to drive her to the altar at his side.
She shrugged. “That’s what I hear. No one asked me.”
Dmitri crooked a finger at her. “Come with me, Keira. Yours and mine is not a marriage that starts with bended knee and declarations of devotion. You know that.”
For a moment, she looked so incredibly sad, then she made a visible effort to wipe all expression from her face. She did an admirable job, until only a hint of it lingered in her hazel eyes. She stood, bracing as if going to battle.
Movement at the edge of his vision caught his attention, and he turned to find Mikhail. One look at the man’s face and Dmitri knew the O’Malley men had found Keira. Time to leave. He captured her hand and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “It seems I’m being called away. Until next time,moya koroleva.”
She gave him a grin that was downright lethal. “Dmitri Romanov, marrying me is going to be the worst decision you ever made.”
***
With the chaos that had erupted around Aiden’s missing sister, dinner ended as soon as it started. Charlie was almostpathetically grateful to be escorted up to a room and left out of the whole damn thing. She’d signed on for this, but there had been an overwhelming amount of information to absorb in twenty-four hours.
She needed time to adjust.
She was tempted to call her dad and use him as a sounding board the same way she’d done all through her childhood and most of her adult life.Not anymore.Not since she was branded a dirty cop. That closeness with her dad—thattrust—was something she mourned almost more than anything else she’d lost as a result of what Romanov had done.
Not just Romanov.
She yanked off her dress, wishing she could yank out her memories as easily. She’d been naive, maybe, for thinking that all cops were good cops—that the NYPD would fulfill her deep-seated desire for a real family. Oh, rationally she’d been aware that some of them crossed the line, but she hadn’t really thought that when push came to shove, they would turn on her like rabid dogs because she didn’t fall in line and take the bribe money.
