Page 44 of Sinister Promise

The jacket was far too big on her frame. It swallowed her, hiding everything that I wanted to see.

"Killing me." Fear filled her eyes, but she didn't look away from me. She was terrified, but brave. Far braver than her boss.

"Well," I said casually, as I sat back down in that cheap pleather chair. "That is certainly one option."

She stiffened and I could practically see her mind race as she tried to figure a way out of this.

"I know there are those who would prefer it if I were to kill you. It would be quick, clean, and you would no longer be an inconvenience."

It was kind of amusing watching her eyes dart around. I could see her heart racing in the vein at the base of her neck and a fresh sheen of sweat made the skin of her brow shine.

"Killing you is definitely on the table, but I am entertaining…other options."

God, taunting her was so much fun.

She stood there shaking as she weighed her options, and I couldn't wait to see what she was going to do next.

"Give me money," she blurted out.

Out of all the things that she could have possibly said, those words hadn't even crossed my mind. Maybe that was what I was so enthralled by with my little kitten. She kept me guessing. It was refreshing.

Everyone else was so predictable. So boring.

"What?"

"I just need enough to leave town. You'll never see me again. I won't be an inconvenience at all. It will be like we never met." The words tumbled out of her lips and slammed into me like bricks.

Never see her again?

Like we had never met?

The idea tightened my chest, my heart beating a little faster.

My teeth ground down, and my fists tightened over the arms of the chair.

That was not a fucking option.

Alina was a loose end. Loose ends didn't survive in the Russian mafia.

I knew this. Killing her was the best option. Her suggestion, the second best…though it was missing an element of mutual destruction.

Still, after what she saw, paying her off wasn't enough.

There was too much at stake, too much damage she could do if she talked to the wrong person.

I could analyze it all day, but I knew that wasn't the real reason I wasn't going to let her go.

I leaned back, spreading my arms along the top of the low chair and kicking my legs out, making myself comfortable. "No."

Her face crumpled. "Please."

"I do so love it when you beg. Maybe I'll consider it. If you dance for me."

She blinked at me, stunned for a moment. "What?"

"You heard me," I said.

The corners of my lips pulling into a sly smile, Igestured to the small, raised stage surrounded by mirrors. "You want me to consider paying you and letting you go. I want a dance. Maybe you'll convince me the world would be a dimmer place without your beauty to illuminate it."

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