Page 109 of Desperate Crimes

She’s in her head.

Probably dreading the moment her father lays eyes on us and realizes exactly what we’ve done.

But me?

I’m thinking.

Scheming.

Brooding.

Whatever you wanna call it, I’m doing it.

And the one thing none of them seem to fucking understand—what they need to learn—is that when it comes to her, there is no negotiation.

We can talk about contracts.

Territory.

We can even talk about that smug, two-faced bastard Caas and the fact that as of this morning, I’ve now got him by the balls.

He thought he could play both sides.

Thought he could flirt with Viper Enterprises while slipping intel to Volkov Industries behind my back.

But Sammy was right.

Adrik does need Caas’ territory overseas.

That land straddles a stretch of coastline where six rare earth mineral mines are just sitting, untapped, unreachable—because Caas locked them down.

Until today.

I finalized the deal this morning.

That land? It’s mine now. Ours.

So now the great Adrik Volkov—Leanna’s father, the Dark Wolf himself—is going to have to choose.

Let go of the illusion of control and welcome me into the family like blood or risk losing the future he’s been clawing after for the past three decades.

Either way, I win.

But what I really want to accomplish tonight—the biggest hurdle they’re gonna have wrapping their heads around—is the fact I didn’t marry Leanna for leverage.

This wasn’t some power grab.

It wasn’t a calculated move in some cold-blooded merger.

She was never part of the game.

But she is the reason for everything I do.

Every breath I take, every fucking hour I work, every move I make now—is for her.

And if Adrik Volkov thinks he’s going to storm at me like I’m some low-level thug who stole his precious daughter in the middle of the night, he’s going to learn real fucking quick what happens when you threaten the one thing in this world I won’t give up.

My wife.