Page 90 of Filthy Promises

“Understood. What about you? How’s our little witness holding up?”

I move to the window, looking out at the city stretching below. “She’s sleeping.”

“And when she wakes up? You think she’ll run straight to the cops?”

“No.” The answer comes without hesitation. I’m not sure when I became so certain of her loyalty, but I am. “She won’t talk.”

“How can you be sure?”

Because she looked at me with those green eyes, even after watching me kill a man, and said she wasn’t afraid of me.

Because she could have run a dozen times and didn’t.

“I just am,” I say instead.

Arkady sighs. “This is a complication we don’t need right now, Vin. Between your father’s ultimatum and the Solovyov situation?—”

“I’m handling it,” I cut him off.

“Are you? Because from where I’m standing, it looks like you’re getting?—”

“Don’t say it.”

“—attached,” he finishes anyway.

“She’s an asset,” I reply, too quickly. “Nothing more.”

“Bullshit.”

I close my eyes, fighting for control. “What’s your point?”

“My point is, your father already thinks she’s a distraction. After tonight, he’s going to see her as a liability. A weak point in your armor.”

“She’s under my protection now. That’s non-negotiable.”

“And if your father objects?”

My hand tightens around the phone. “Then he’ll have to go through me.”

Arkady whistles low. “You really are in deep.”

“I’m not—” I stop. What’s the use in denying it? “Just make sure the security details know their orders. No one touches her. No one approaches her without my direct authorization.”

“Understood,pakhan.”

The title is only half-joking.

I hang up and move to the bar, pouring myself a generous measure of vodka. The familiar burn does nothing to quiet the storm inside me.

I pull up the security feed on my phone, checking the cameras outside my penthouse, in the elevator, in the lobby. All clear. No suspicious activity.

Next, I access the feed from Rowan’s apartment building. My men are in place—one in the lobby, one across the street, two more in a parked car with a clear view of all entrances.

I tap another icon, bringing up the hospital feed. Her mother’s room is secure, the hallway empty except for the occasional nurse.

It’s not enough.

It will never be enough.

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