Deceitful Vows by Brook Wilder
Chapter 7
Paige
He’s not the one I should be afraid of? Yeah, like I’m going to believe that.
I only stopped by my apartment to change my clothes after taking Dad to the hospital for his chemo treatments. My plan was to buy a camera with my credit card and return it the next day so I could work tonight. I told Emma I would pick her up from school today.
How am I going to explain why I didn’t hold up my end of the bargain?
Sorry, kiddo, couldn’t come get you because the sexy stranger I met at that shitshow wedding just kidnapped me.
Andrei has me pinned to his side while the Rover barrels down the streets of downtown Twin Rivers. I yelp as we almost plow into the back of a slow-moving electric bus. The driver makes a face in the rearview mirror and then says something in Russian, probably about me.
I try to move against the opposite door, but the driver takes a turn too fast, narrowly missing a Tesla, and blows through a red light. I land against Andrei, and his musky scent fills my nostrils as his dark eyes look down on me.
Shamefully, a thrill trembles through me when I feel the warmth rolling from his muscular body and my heart beats as if it will burst. Slowly, I edge away, but he grabs my wrist and keeps me by his side.
“I have to be somewhere today,” I say weakly. “Please let me go.”
“That’s not an option,” Andrei replies without looking at me. “Not anymore.”
Andrei’s leg relaxes and his knee rests against mine. When I’m not looking at him, I feel his gaze on the side of my face. It takes a lot of energy, but I refuse to make eye contact. His gaze feels more dangerous than his gun.
All sorts of thoughts go through my head. I’m in an armored jeep with blacked-out windows, speeding recklessly through town with two men who I know have guns because I’ve seen them. Andrei is the most dangerous man I’ve ever met.
A million scenarios run through my head, and each one is worse than the last.
“I have no money,” I state clearly, breaking the solid silence. “And neither does my family.”
He frowns. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m just saying,” I say. “You’re not getting anything by kidnapping me.”
“I’m the only one who can keep you safe.” His dark eyes are unreadable.
I stare at him in disbelief. “I was perfectly safe until I met you!”
Andrei doesn’t answer me.
I plead with the driver. “I have to be somewhere important. You have to stop the car.”
He ignores me too.
My foot starts to tap uncontrollably, aware that my rambling is probably more annoying than convincing. “I need to go to the hospital and pick up my father. And somewhere in between everything, I have to pick up my sister. And if I don’t show up at my gig, I won’t be paid.”
“If money is an issue, I can make that concern go away.” His voice is so polished, as if it could smooth away all my problems.
Well …
No, Paige! I’m not taking handouts from the Russian Mafia! My father taught me better than that.
I glare at Andrei. Right now, he is the problem. “What about my family? They need me. They’ll be worried when I don’t show up.”
I wait, but he doesn’t answer, and I shrink down into the seat. I start to speak, but he places a warning hand on my shaking knee. I shut my mouth and stare at his graceful hand, surprised that a killer has a gentle touch. “What is your father’s name?” he asks.
I open my mouth to answer when something runs through me. He’s Russian Mafia, Paige. Don’t tell him anything he doesn’t need to know.
“That’s none of your business,” I answer quickly.
I hold still and wait for the inevitable explosion, but Andrei doesn’t react. The Rover doesn’t stop, and we continue moving in awkward silence. I bite my lip hard to keep from crying. I’m sure that’s what this sexy psycho wants. He wants to torment me by ruining the shit life that I have.
I shove his hand off my knee, and Andrei scowls as if I shouldn’t have done that. Looking straight ahead, my tears burn my throat as I conceal my true emotions. He might shoot me if I don’t play it cool. They might shoot me anyway.
“They’ll wonder where I am,” my voice is low, “if I don’t pick them up. They’ll wonder where I am. My sister can’t get my father home from the hospital on her own. When I don’t show up, they’ll worry. And then they’ll call the cops.”
The driver sighs loudly to show his annoyance. “I don’t see the other car,” he says in English. “Maybe we can drop her off.”
“No,” replies Andrei abruptly. “She comes with us. End of discussion.”
I sit up on the edge of the seat, crestfallen. My voice is breathless. “Please … I won’t say a …”
Something hits the back of the Rover, making a sickening rattle. And then something else, as if the car is being pelted with hail. I turn and see the rear window is cracked but not broken.
It’s not hail. It’s bullets.
Andrei pushes me down onto the seat as he shouts at the driver in Russian. I don’t need to understand him to know what he’s saying. Faster!
One of my cheeks presses against the cool leather while the other feels the warmth of his large body as he covers me like he did at the wedding. He raises the gun in his other hand as the window lowers. Then his arm jerks with each shot. The roar of the gun is deafening, and Andrei braces his arm—the one that I patched at the wedding—against my shoulder to keep me down.
I grip the seat and bury my face into the leather as I squeeze my eyes shut. A light sweat dampens my forehead, and I try my best not to move. I feel his body moving over me. My other hand grips the front of his shirt, and my whimpers are masked by the wind rushing into the car.
The pressure of his body calms me even though I know damn well I could die. But I’m not as scared as I should be. His hard muscles flex against me as I lower my hand to his taut stomach. I take long breaths and smell the sweat forming on his heated skin. I feel the strength of his muscles and the steadiness of his body as Andrei shoots again.
I’ve never felt protected in my life, not like this.
Eventually, the soothing hum of the car replaces the confusion and chaos. Andrei pulls me upright, and I’m unsteady as my eyes readjust to the sunlight. Before the window closes, I notice a Rover cruising beside us as we merge onto the thruway.
Andrei’s fingers catch my chin, and he pulls my face toward his.
I inhale sharply as his breath tickles my nose. I stare into his appraising gaze as his hand cups my chin. We’re so close, but Andrei wouldn’t dare kiss me?
“Are you all right?”
Disappointment and relief flood through me at the same time and I nod. Andrei grins mischievously, as if he didn’t just have a shootout in broad daylight with the entire city as his witness. He sits back in the seat, tugging my body along. Casually, he drapes his arm over my shoulder as if we were on a date. I’d applaud him if my hands weren’t clenched in fists.
I fold my arms and hate the fact that I don’t have the desire to pull myself off him. I sit quietly, annoyed, wrapped in his arm, feeling the built muscle coiled behind my head. He may look calm on the outside, but I can sense the tension.
Is it from the shootout? Or something else?
“Where are we going?” The city thins out as the buildings spread farther apart and trees start to fill in the spaces.
“Somewhere safe,” he replies with certainty.
Safe is the last word I would ever use to describe Andrei. Dangerous. Bold. Cocky. Mobster. Those are better words. Andrei saved me again, even though he’s the reason why I need to be saved in the first place. I let out the breath I’d been holding this entire time.
The man who tempted me in my dreams is now pulling me into a living nightmare.
The Rover veers off toward a service road. It’s almost unnoticeable, and easy to miss. We drive down a long road deep into the woods until the dirt gives way to gravel. After a distance, the path turns into smooth pavement as we approach a massive ivy-covered gate almost as tall as the oak trees that surround it. A chill tightens my scalp and creeps down my spine toward my ice-cold feet as the gate slowly begins to open.
Realization dawns on me as we drive through the open gate.
No one will ever be able to find me here.
