She bit down on her bottom lip, the one I wished I could have kissed. “Maybe we’ll see each other at another hunt?”
“I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other soon.”
The knife curved further in my chest at her hopeful expression. It was now or never. After rising off the bed, I eased the syringe out of my pocket. As I went to turn off the lamp beside the bed, I uncapped the needle.
“Goodnight, Sarah,” I replied.
“Goodnight.”
Since I wore the mask, I couldn’t kiss her goodnight. But I still bent over her like I was going to whisper something in her ear. As a contented sigh escaped her lips, I jabbed the needle into her shoulder muscle.
The fear and hurt swirling in her eyes were my undoing. “I’m sorry. I promise you’ll be okay.”
She opened her mouth to protest, but then her eyelids drooped. Within seconds, she was out.
And the next part of my plan went into motion.
CHAPTER ELEVEN: MAKSIM
It was after midnight when I arrived with Sarah at the mansion in Gwynedd, a suburb of Philadelphia. It hadn’t been my first choice to rent a secluded mansion, but it afforded me the necessary privacy that my downtown penthouse didn’t. Since we were on two acres and without neighbors up against us, I didn’t have to worry about her screams being heard.
“Jesus,” I muttered aloud.
I’d never been a good man. I’d done terrible things in the name of family honor. But worrying about whether a woman’s screams of fear, not pleasure, could be heard by my neighbors was a new low even for me.
It had been easier than I thought getting Sarah to the car. With Lev’s hacking skills, all the cameras in the manor went offline for the ten minutes it took me to move my car to the back loading area shortly before the hunt began. Then they went offline again in the five minutes it took me to get her down the back staircase and to my waiting SUV.
I didn’t have to worry about looking suspicious in front of any of the staff. They were used to women and even men being carried during a sub drop, which was a term used in the community for the drop of adrenaline and emotion in a submissive after an intense scene. Of course, most Doms didn’t have a bag of their sub’s belongings hidden under their cloak during this time, but it was necessary for my escape.
Thankfully, I didn’t run into anyone. After depositing Sarah along the bench in the backseat, I covered her with a blanket and then drove like mad out of the manor. Once I’d gotten onto the main road, I’d been careful of my speed. The last thing I needed was to be pulled over and questioned why I had an unconscious woman in a robe in my backseat.
I’d made the two-hour drive in relative silence. I’d left the radio off and hadn’t answered any of my phone calls. While the interior of the SUV was quiet, the inside of my head was raging.
Not only was I consumed by my thoughts of my plan with Sarah, I also had Dima’s recovery on my mind. In the last few days with the help of a top-notch physical therapist, he was starting to walk. While he was on his feet, he had a hell of a way to go since he couldn’t stand long, and he relied heavily on a cane or walker. If anyone could do it, Dima could.
Since I’d needed a reason for disappearing from the Korolov Bratva while working with Sarah, a rumor had been planted that I was trying to overthrow my Father since he planned to name Aleks as heir. Because I’d dared to go against him, I’d gone underground.
A snort erupted from me at the thought of my father thinking of me living a hand-to-mouth existence while escaping from one safe house to another to stay off his radar. The truth was I’d be cozying up in a mansion with a heated pool and tennis court.
As I pulled into the winding driveway, I flicked a glance in the backseat to once again check on Sarah. Thankfully, she remained soundly asleep. The last thing I needed was for her to wake up along the drive and go ripshit on me while I was driving.
After putting the SUV into park, I threw open the door. Before I could go to get Sarah, Aleks stepped out of the garage. At the sight of me still in the mask, he quickly pulled his gun.
I held my hands up. “It’s me, jackass.”
“How do I know it’s you?”
“Eto ya, pridurok,” I replied, repeating what I’d just said in Russian.
When he still didn’t lower the gun, I jerked the mask off. “See?”
“You should’ve ditched that thing the moment you got out of the car. I mean, what if I’d shot first and asked questions later?”
“For fuck’s sake, I’m d-driving one of our SUVs.”
“Yeah, without a bodyguard, so you could’ve totally been taken over.”
“Whatever,” I mused.
