“No more secrets?”
Her brows furrowed. “Are you sure you have no more secrets you want to confess?”
I paused and searched my mind for anything I might still be keeping from my wife. “Not that I’m aware of.”
She pursed her lips.
“That’s the thing…I’m not sure what I might be keeping from you. Like that fiasco with the state troopers, it didn’t matter to me because that was before I started falling for you.” He blew out a breath. “But a secret like that—purposely kept from you or not—almost had fatal consequences. That was a lesson I learned the hard way.”
“Fair enough.” She pushed me away. I protested losing her closeness, but she only bent down to reach for her purse that had fallen to the floor. She slipped out her phone and showed me a string of messages from this Mr. Anonymous.
“I have a feeling it was Jeremiah who sent me these.”
Fury surged through me again as my eyes narrowed on the messages, the videos showing my secret meetings with Anya. Fuck. This was what my wife endured.
“You didn’t say a word about it,” I seethed. But I wasn’t mad at Lucy. With the way I was feeling about her now, I was devastated at what I’d put her through.
“What was there to say? You were hell-bent on revenge, and I was hell-bent on surviving this marriage until we divorced. Since I thought it was from Anya, maybe even with your blessing, I wasn’t giving you or her satisfaction that they affected me.”
“It backfired, you know that, right?”
I returned the phone to her. She had a glint of triumph in her eyes.
“Are you saying I won the marriage wars?” she asked.
I reeled her in and kept our bodies flushed with each other. “You know you did. The best revenge was yours. Being happy while being ignored by your husband? Now that was an insult delivered with class. I was miserable while you were happy with my family.”
She laughed.
Minx.
I lowered my head. “I love you. I have a feeling I’m going to get used to saying it. But not as much as showing you.”
I lowered my head, my lips getting close to hers. “God, Lusenka. I haven’t sunk inside your body for weeks,” I growled. It probably also explains the high level of my frustration because my favorite way to release that tension wasn’t available. “But once you’re fully recovered, watch out.”
I felt her shiver.
I grinned devilishly. “But for now, give me that mouth.”
And she did.
“Jeremiah King isalive but is in critical condition,” Maksim told Ivan and me. We were in my father’s study. My brother arrived later than he intended because rumors were circulating fast that there was turmoil at King Industries, but it hadn’t hit major news networks yet. Theodore King was managing the fallout from the hospital. According to my sources, a convoy of blackout SUVs was surrounding the facility, and an army of suits toting briefcases and smartphones were seen in the area.
“Maybe they should give him a brain transplant,” I said dryly.
“I’m glad you kept Kolya under control.” A hint of sarcasm entered my brother’s voice. One I was used to. Maksim and I looked physically similar. Same height. Same dark hair. Same icy blue eyes. But that was where our similarities ended. And though we shared the same nose to sniff out the next moneymaker, his language was spreadsheets and numbers and boardroom negotiations. My language was blackmail and blood and backroom deals. As for Kolya, he hated negotiations and didn’t spend time in blackmail; he went straight for blood, which was why I was the mediator between the two. Maksim was my brother in blood, but Kolya was my brother in everything else.
It was an annoying position to be in because I hated being a mediator.
“I kept Kolya under control because it makes me homicidal when my wife’s caught in the crossfire, surely you understand that.”
For all his polished control, there was one subject that would trigger the violence in my older brother. His estranged wife. Ophelia was a surgeon and was currently on a humanitarian mission in Africa. Beyond his reach. I’d recently come into myobsession with Lucy, and if she was the one in the midst of a war-torn nation, I’d probably go insane.
His jaw clenched.
“But tell me, what’s your concern? Surely, Zahkarov Holdings is not caught up in this mess with King Industries.”
Maksim and Ivan exchanged a look.
