Page 48 of Claimed By the Villain

“The after what?”

“Jesus, you’re even more clueless about love than I was. When you hook up with a woman who just wants sex, only sex, do you think about her the next day?”

“Only if I want to fuck her again, yeah, but that’s rare.”

“Connection is when you want to fuck her again and again, but you also want to make her smile. You want to protect and take care of her.”

“Then I’m definitely connected to Jackie.”

Just without the sex, for now,I mutter to myself.

“She seems to think otherwise.”

“Because she’s upset. I crushed her dreams about having a real marriage. Since she was a girl, she’s said she wanted to marry and live in a beach house. A home full of kids. The only thing I have to offer her is good fucks and protection.”

“And still—she wanted you.”

“I didn’t give her a choice.”

“Women make choices for themselves when they don’t want something, Lucifer.”

“What exactly does that mean?”

“If Jackie didn’t want you, you could lay out every risk in the world, and she’d never agree to marry you.”

“She had no choice.”

“Keep telling yourself that. How long do you plan to stay married?”

“I told her we’d have a five-year contract.”

“Why?”

“It seemed reasonable.”

“I’d bet it won’t take us more than a year to find whoever’s after you, Lucifer. Right now I have my best men tracking your enemy, and Ruslan has assigned his people to the search too. I imagine you’re moving your own pieces on this chessboard as well.”

“Yes. I hired someone to hunt him down, just in case we’re missing something.”

“A mercenary hiring another?”

I shrug.

“The priority is keeping Jackie alive.”

“Who is he?”

“Tur Zubarevich.”

“I know him. Former Army Special Forces. He’s worked for my brother-in-law, Amos.”

“Yes, I know.”

“Maybe along those lines, you should put a few more men like Tur on your enemy’s trail. You’d kill two birds with one stone. On one hand, you’d increase your chances of catching him, and on the other, you’d avoid them being hired to try to kill you.”

“As good as Tur, I only know two: Abaddon Hatzis[10] and Jack Hudak, but Hudak works exclusively with the Irish mob.”

“Abaddon would be worth a try, at least.”