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“What the hell do you mean,in time? Where’s my dad?” I step forward and grip his wrists as hard as I can.
“I can’t just let him free. You’re too unstable. I masked my voice so he thinks a Russian freed him. He was gagged and blindfolded. Now… if a certain impulsive daughter spills that it was anItalianwho interfered with bratva dealings, I’ll have a war on my hands.”
He effortlessly flips out of my hold and grabs both my wrists with one hand, then slowly raises my arms high over my head.
God, I’m like a twig in his grasp.
He sticks to his story so well, which gives me hope Dad really is safe. But I still don’t have proof…
He leans his face inches from mine. “I wouldn’t want to kill you.”
We both know it’s an empty threat, but he’s still terrifying.
I don’t even know what to do with myself. A part of me is kind of turned on, but the other wants to scream at the top of my lungs for help.
Find the middle ground, Quinn.
He scans my lips, and I, his.
The tension is fever-inducing. Literally, I’m sweating again.
“What happens now?” I ask, leaving my mouth slightly parted.
“We wait,” he growls, then releases his grip and pokes one finger into my chest so I fall seated on the bed.
I’m taken aback. “Wait for what?”
“Where the chips fall, in my world and in yours.”
I sigh, shutting my eyes and focusing on cooling the heat swirling around my thighs. “You want to see if I’ll sing.”
“Of course. I also have to find out where the Russians will turn next. Who will they blame.” He turns his back on me.
“I want my father back, Aros.”
“And you will get him,ifI decide to trust you.”
“And if not?” I grit my teeth.
“He’ll be treated far better than he would’ve in the bratva’s hands, that I can assure you.”
My lips tremble. “What were they going to do?”
“The normal revenge treatment. One finger clipped at a time, then mailed to the station, I’d assume. Then, when he was finally numb from that pain, they’d take his eyes in exchange for years of the bratva brother’s life as he rots behind bars. They would apply the same treatment with your father that they do to rats.
“Bold and baffling to make a move like they did though, because he’s a cop.” He shakes his head. “Almost doesn’t make any sense.”
The images he paints of my dad being tortured is brutally painful. So much for heat. This man has the power to wet me like a river and dry me up like a desert.
“That’s over now, though… right?”
“It is. But if I can’t trust you, you’ll never see him or me again,” he says deadpan.
“Then you’ll have to trust me.” I get up and push him.
“You’re a cop’s daughter, and I’m part of a deep-rooted family. These things don’t mesh on a whim, kid.”
“Oh really?” Heat flares up to my face. “Because it seems like you just changed my whole worldon a whim.”