Page 52 of Toxic Temptation
“Coffee beans don’t count as food, V.”
She pours herself a mug and settles across from me at my tiny kitchen table. The silence unfolds between us until she can’t stand it anymore. So, nine or ten seconds, give or take.
“Okay, what’s wrong? And don’t say ‘nothing,’ because you get this little crease between your eyebrows when you’re spiraling. Right there.”
I touch my forehead instinctively. “I’m not spiraling.”
“Then what’s that?” She points at the exact spot I just touched.
God, she knows me too well. We’ve been friends since elementary school, when she moved in across the street and decided I needed saving from my own introversion. Some things never change.
“I… might have done something stupid.”
Her eyes light up. “Finally! I’ve been waiting years for you to do something stupid. What is it? Please tell me you keyed Jeremy’s car.”
“Worse.”
“Better,” she corrects, leaning forward. “Spill it.”
I take a long sip of coffee, buying time. But there’s no backing out now. If I don’t tell someone about this insane arrangement with Kovan, I’m going to explode.
“Remember the shooting at the hospital a few weeks ago?”
“Of course. Thank God you weren’t working that day.”
“Actually…” I clear my throat. “I was there.”
Charity blinks. “What do you mean, ‘you were there’?”
“I mean I was in the middle of it. With a patient. And…” I pause, knowing how crazy this is going to sound. “I might have saved a mob boss’s nephew.”
The coffee mug she’s sipping from stops at her lips. “I’m sorry, what?”
So I tell her everything. The whole insane story tumbles out of me—Kovan, Luka, the shootout, the dinner, the museum. By the time I finish, Charity is staring at me like I’ve grown a second head.
“Let me get this straight,” she says slowly. “You performed emergency surgery during a gunfight?”
“It wasn’t surgery, exactly. More like?—”
“And then had dinner with a Russian mob boss?”
“Technically, he kidnapped me first.”
“Vesper.” Her voice is deadly serious now. “What the hell were you thinking?”
“Iwasn’tthinking. That’s the point.” I bury my face in my hands. “I just… When I saw that little boy struggling to breathe, everything else disappeared. I had to help him.”
“Okay, I get that part. You’re a doctor. It’s what you do.” She sets down her mug with careful precision. “But what I don’t get is why you’re still involved with them.”
This is the part I’ve been dreading. “Because Kovan made me an offer.”
“What kind of offer?”
I take a deep breath. “He wants me to pretend to be his girlfriend for forty-five days. To help him get custody of Luka.”
Charity’s jaw drops. “Are you insane?”
“Maybe.”
