Page 99 of Goodnight, Sinners

“You are a flatterer,” Shaun laughed.

You’re just jealous I’m not flattering you.

He dished himself up a heaping plate while Shaun and Fatima laughed.

Chapter Forty-Four

Nikolay had a bad feeling. He’d had it for months, but when no one accused him of betraying Jozef, he’d shoved the feeling aside. They didn’t know. He was safe.

Then why did he feel like the sword of Damocles was hanging over his head, awaiting the right moment to drop?

“Saskia.”

He’d been standing in the shadows outside her suite, waiting for her to appear. She was coming down the hall toward him, her blue headphones wrapped around her neck, her wild brown hair a messy halo around her head. She wore tight ripped jeans, a black hoodie and running shoes. It hit him that she was really quite beautiful in her own way.

He’d never found her particularly attractive when they’d dated. She was too wild and headstrong, and he preferred his women compliant. Submissive. Not words one could use in association with Saskia Koba.

Yet, in this moment, with the light of the sun behind her, she looked ethereal. He felt a moment of loss, but quickly shook it away. His survival might depend on what he said. If he married Saskia, which was his plan, then he could insinuate himself in the family once more.

He thought he’d gotten away with Halil’s murder, but gradually over the past few months he’d come to suspect that something wasn’t right. Jozef had been coming up with excuses not to send him on missions with the other men. At first, the excuses sounded legitimate, and Nikolay hadn’t worried.

Jozef had appealed to Nikolay’s vanity, and like an idiot, he’d fallen for it. Jozef had told him that as a Koba heir, he was to be protected. He’d been flattered and allowed a temporary replacement on the team without complaint. But the more he thought about it, the more he realized Jozef’s reason for not sending him on missions was bullshit.

Jozef had always been Krystoff’s heir, yet he’d done the most dangerous work out of all of them. No one had ever used Nikolay’s distant familial connection as a reason to keep him safe.

Gradually, over the past months, Nikolay was forced to conclude that since the night of the club attack, he’d been given fewer and fewer responsibilities. He was no longer privy to important information, and he was kept out of team meetings.

What he didn’t understand was, if they knew about his involvement with Halil’s death, why hadn’t they already come after him? If they knew he was the betrayer, then he should be dead. Shouldn’t he?

Saskia did what she did every time she saw him on the estate. She ignored him. She turned her back on him and dug her keys from her purse, while pretending he wasn’t standing three feet away from her. It brought his predator to the surface.

He wanted her more than ever. Weird, considering she’d always been a means to an end. Then again, she’d done most of the chasing. While not sexually experienced before meeting him, she was sexually assertive. She knew what she wanted, and she knew how to ask for it. He didn’t like that in a woman. Now that she seemed indifferent to him, he wanted to chase her.

“Don’t ignore me, kitten.” He deliberately used his pet name for her, knowing he would get a response.

She turned her head to stare at him, fire in her eyes and a sneering twist to her lips. “Kitten?”

He sidled closer, reaching out to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. “Yeah, I used to call you kitten, right? You act like a kitten. You have claws, but you’re really sweet and cuddly.”

He expected a response, was even goading her into one. He wanted to get physical, because once he got his hands on her, he could seduce her. She wouldn’t be able to resist.

She growled, knocked his arm away and tried to bring her knee up between his legs. He wasn’t expecting her to go for the boys, but he wasn’t an elite team member for nothing. He easily knocked her leg aside.

He gripped her by the neck and swung her around. He knew exactly where each camera was in the corridor and where they were pointed. He dragged her into a blind spot before slamming her into a wall and knocking the breath from her.

Pleasure sizzled through his veins.

It had been a long time since he’d gotten to play rough, and he’d always wanted to try with this mouthy bitch. It was an added rush that he was doing it under the nose of her beloved cousin. Saskia wouldn’t say a word. She was stubborn and prideful. She would never ask someone else to fight her battles.

Nikolay bent his knees, bringing himself to her eye level and pinning her against the wall with his body. He pressed his erection against her and brushed his mouth against hers.

She turned her head to the side and glared blankly down the hall.

“You know you still have feelings, baby.”

“Fuck you and your babies and kittens,” she spat.

He bit her lip, hard enough to draw blood.

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