Page 145 of Sinful Promise

“I am now.”

Dimitri gets to his feet. “We’re going to take him back to the warehouse. But you two should get checked out at the hospital.”

I look at the unconscious man onthe floor, and my mind runs all the scenarios of pain I can bring him. But my brother is right. “Idon’t need checking out. But I will make sure Emily is taken care of.”

“Don’t worry, we won’t finish anything without you. Mikhail and Alexei are upstairs, and Anton is on the way with Lev. We’re going to have some fun.” Dimitri grins. “I’ll have Zara meet you at the hospital so that she can take over for you when you’re done.”

I nod.

The exhaustion is suddenly starting to hit, but it’s going to be a while yet until I can finally sleep.

“Take my car. Here.” Dimitri reaches into his pocket and pulls out his keys, throwing them into my ready hand.. “Oh, and Danil?”

“Yeah?”

“If you so much as scratch it, you’re dead.”

I can’t help but laugh.

I pocket Dimitri’s keys and turn to face Emily.

She looks up at me with such hope in her eyes that it almost sends me to my knees.

I reach out to gently stroke her cheek.

“Thank you,” I whisper.

“For what?”

“For giving me something to fight for.”

32

EMILY

“Zara, please. Stop fussing.”

My sister keeps looking at me as if she expects me to burst into tears at any moment, which isn’t entirely impossible, but they would be tears of relief rather than sadness.

Zara wraps a blanket around my shoulders, a frown appearing between her brows. “I will do no such thing. When did the doctor say she was coming back?”

From the dark purple bruising beneath her eyes, my sister looks like she hasn’t slept in days, and guilt eats at me for what I’ve put her through over the past twenty-four hours.

I never meant for any of this to happen, and I hate I worried her so much.

I was expecting her to give me a lecture when she met Danil and me in the waiting area of the hospital, or at least an ‘I told you so’ look. But I think she was so overwhelmed by the fact that I was alive that she just started crying instead.

But I am under no illusion that the lecture will be coming once I get the all-clear from the doctor.

I’m beyond exhausted, and I’m in desperate need of a shower.

Thankfully, Zara brought me some clean sweats, which I changed into. That alone has made me feel marginally better, but I can’t stop thinking about my dirty green dress that is sitting on the bottom of Zara’s bag.

I had been so excited to wear it for my date with Danil because I know he loves it when I wear green. It felt like tonight, or I suppose, yesterday? I honestly have no idea what time or day it is... But it felt like our date marked the official start of our relationship, and I wanted everything to be perfect.

I had hoped to spend the night in Danil’s bed, where he no doubt was planning on exploring every inch of my body with his tongue. Or at least, that’s what I was planning on doing to him…

That was until Igor decided to make his move against the Koslovs.

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