Page 97 of Shadows of the Past
I feel my orgasm building, and when his teeth sink into the skin at the base of my shoulder, I know he’s doing exactly what he set out to do. I cry out, pleasure rippling through my body, tightening around him until he can’t hold back any longer and lets go.
With our foreheads pressed together, sweat-slicked, he whispers, “Love isn’t a big enough word for what I feel for you. Give me a verb that means I’d burn the world for you, that I’d give up all my revenge if you asked. Something that says if anything ever happens to you, I’ll follow, because I know withabsolute certainty…when your heart stops beating, mine will too.”
Who needs “I love you” when you have that?
I wish I could carve his words into my heart, just to make sure they’ll always be true. That when one of us stops breathing, the other will follow. Because I’m selfish. I spent eighteen years without him, and I refuse to spend another second on this earth if he’s not here.
Chapter 36
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Maksim
We're napping on the private jet to Chicago when the pilot announces we'll be landing any minute. I barely have time to think about getting our bags loaded into the cars before one of my alerts goes off, shrill and insistent.
Roman has no idea I’ve got people watching both him and the Irish. You’d think after all these years in this world, they’d be more careful about who’s listening in, but the fact that none of them have caught on to our surveillance is a win for us.
Back in Moscow, I found out it was Aleksandr who wired the money to the Irish to take Roman and Damien, the head of the Polish mafia, out of the picture.
Now, the problem with this latest notification? It tells me that Devin and his Irish mafia are less than three hundred yards from my brother, who’s holed up in a house rigged with explosives.
Julia sees the same alert I do. Two minutes later, she’s showing me a video of Luna slipping into an abandoned house, backpack slung over her shoulder.
I can feel the important details slipping through my fingers, but one thing is clear: Roman is there for her, and he’s about to get blown sky-high. I don’t even remember grabbing my phone, but suddenly I’m dialing his number.
“Get the hell out of that house! Devin and his men have it rigged with C-4. You're about to blow up at any moment!”
“How do you know that? And how the hell do you know where I am?”
Of course, his first concern is how I know any of this. But now’s not the time to admit I have a team tracking him.
“There isn't time to explain right now, but I have my methods and I can tell you for certain the whole location is riddled with C-4,” I say, my voice vibrating with anger.
Phone pressed to my ear, I jump into the first car I see and signal to Julia that we’ll meet at home. The last thing I need is for her to be there-though her machine gun might come in handy, but no.
“Do you know its location?” Roman asks.
“From what I caught in their conversation, it's set in the attic,”
“The bastard wants to bury us in this house,” someone mutters in the background—probably the Polish mob boss.
“We'll go to the basement; they won't expect us to be there. A few soldiers will run out toward the backyard. When they see them, they'll detonate the explosives. Damien picks three men, I pick three, and we'll send them running. They'll have time to get away before they notice and blow up this house,” my twin says as if he hasn’t just volunteered to be blown to pieces. There’s no way he’ll make it out in time if he does that.
“Are you insane? You’ll be buried alive!” I know I’m yelling, probably blowing out his eardrum, but he doesn’t seem to realize just how bad this plan is. My brain is scrambling for alternatives, and I remember the military drones that can fire rounds. They’ve never been tested, but I could have them in the air in ten seconds.
“Easy, brother. Someone hearing you might think you care about me,” he jokes.
I don’t know why I care so much about someone I’ve spent most of the time arguing with, but just knowing he’s in danger makes my stomach twist.
Voices blur in the background, but I tune them out. I need to get those drones airborne. As soon as my server pings back with a stable connection, I say, “Wait. I can create a diversion for you all to get out, but Roman, Devin has an army of men a few houses away. They'll attack right after the house blows.”
“How do you plan to get their attention?”
I don’t recognize the voice, but I answer anyway. “In sixty-five seconds, a drone will start shooting at one of the houses where the Irish are.”
A few seconds of silence hang in the air. I’m bracing for Roman to curse me out when, suddenly, his voice cuts through the phone.
“You heard the order. Out through the back door.”
