Page 97 of Bought By Sin

Or under his control, his ownership.

He had offered me a mercy no other had ever considered. To kill me. To put me out of the misery of the life I was supposed to believe I had.

And he’d suggested the alternative. That I could choose to be his slave. To be “free” under his watch and order.

But I am.

I am free with you, Lev.

I’m free to know what love is. I’m free to love you.

The aching hole in my chest stunned me. Raw pain filled me as I realized I might not have that option anymore if I was dying now.

A scream built in my throat. I wanted to roar it. I needed him to hear my answer now.

I hadn’t replied to him then. That day at the failed handoff, caught between the Hernandez and Garcia Cartels, he’d asked me if I wanted to be free in death or under his rule. I couldn’t have known that being with him would lead to so much goodness and present me with the lure of happiness like this.

If I had known then what I did now, I would have immediately chosen a life with him.

Forever.

I choose you, Lev. I choose to love you. To be with you.

I can’t die.

Please, don’t let me die.

I would have no peace or freedom at all if I lost him.

The only future I wanted to look forward to was the one where I could be with him.

Where we could be together—against all odds.

35

LEV

Isat on the edge of the bed, watching Mila rest.

A full circle of visiting people like this bothered me.

Before I’d met her, I’d made a habit of visiting Uncle Dmitri. Now, I was spending every second of the last day and night here with Mila while she slept.

Uncle Dmitri was never going to wake up. The cancer he’d hidden from us all had spread until he suffered that stroke. He was gone, in every true sense of the word, and we were beholden to keeping him physically alive per his wishes in his will.

Mile would wake up. She already had for short periods of time. The surgeons who closed up the through-and-through bullet holes had ensured that she’d survive. While she had lost a lot of blood, she had tolerated the emergency surgeries well enough.

I wasn’t sure what her truest wishes were, but I wanted to have faith that when she woke up next after this long nap with the sedation wearing off completely, she would express her will to live.

With me.

With my love that I would remind her of every single second of her life.

Alexei walked into the room, knocking on the door as he entered without waiting for my reply. My bedroom wasn’t a hospital room, but she’d been brought here as soon as she had been given the all-clear for transport from the hospital.

“Looks like it pays off to donate those hefty funds to St. Anne’s, huh?” he quipped as he strode in and took a seat.

So much had happened since that mission of taking out Yusef. He’d been ready to help, sending a chopper to the location to have Mila airlifted to the hospital that we contributed a lot of money to.