Page 79 of Debt to the Mafia King
“You were spying on him?”
“Spying is such an ugly word, don’t you think? But I keep tight tabs on my son and my organization.” He paused for a second, and I heard his breath rasp in his throat. “So let’s talk like adults. I have done my homework on you as well, Leah. You are a resourceful and hard-working young woman. You know this is all a business arrangement. So let’s talk business. How much is my son paying you?”
“I don’t know what you mean. Our marriage is based on feelings and romance.”
Wow, that lie slipped out easily.
“And yet your love match involves another woman, and you running around in the countryside without a coat or even shoes in the middle of a snowstorm. Come on, Leah. My legs might not work, but my brain is sharp. You don’t love my son, and he is incapable of that feeling, so it’s money that keeps you locked to him. Unless—” his eyes skimmed over my face. “Oh, you poor child. You’ve fallen for him, haven’t you? Leah, Leah, Leah.” Boris shook his head. “You must know that it’s hopeless to love a man like Viktor.”
I turned my face away. Staring out of the window. “Where are you taking me?” I whispered, changing the subject.
“Does it matter?”
“To me, yes.”
Boris sighed.
“Where we take you depends on your answers to the following questions.”
I shuddered. Well, I didn’t like the sound of that at all. Gathering my courage around me, I met his cold eyes.
“Then, ask them.”
“I like your directness, Leah. It speaks of a woman who knows the way of the world, maybe better than my son does. You’ve had a hard life, haven’t you? That’s what your files say.”
“If you have a file on me, then you don’t need me to answer, do you. It’s not a question.”
“Touché, you’re married to my son, but these things can be dissolved pretty quickly. That doesn’t mean you can’t marry—”
“No.” I snapped. Hell no, not even if he was the last man on earth and the survival of the human race depended on it.
“Then let me make you another offer. Stay married to my son, for however long you have left on your contract. Play happy families and in love newlyweds, but come out of that marriage an evenricher woman than you would have been. Five million dollars and all you need to do is—”
I gulped loudly. Five million dollars? It was more money than I had ever dreamed of. So much more than Viktor had offered me, and that was a fortune. I could do so much with that money. The baby and I could disappear and live a life I had only dreamed about.
“Let me know.”
I blinked. I hadn’t heard a word he had said, but I knew what he was asking me. He wanted me to spy on my husband for him. He wanted me to be disloyal. And loyalty was the thing that Viktor valued the most. But five million dollars.
“Thank you, Boris,” I said sincerely and closed my eyes. “Your offer is really generous, but I made a promise to your son, and I won’t break my word.”
“Your marriage is a sham. It will be over within the year.”
I shrugged. “Possibly, but that’s not the promise I am talking about.”
I had promised never to run away from my family. That I would never betray them. And I wasn’t about to become a liar. Not even for millions of dollars.
“I am sorry, Boris, but I can’t accept your offer. Please take me back to my husband.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Leah
They dropped me off about half a mile from the gates and left me there, almost like that, now that he knew I wouldn’t help him, Boris had no more use for me.
I was actually pretty amazed that he hadn’t killed me. He must know that I was going to tell Viktor everything.
My husband might be a grade A asshole, but he needed to know that his own father was scheming against him. I owed him that much, even if he was a cheating bastard.
