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CHAPTER FORTY

SASHA

ABOUT THREE WEEKS LATER

“Can you pull over at the corner?” I ask Liam as we approach his building.

“What for, mo mhuirnín ?” He squeezes my upper thigh as we approach the corner market.

“I just need to grab tomatoes for dinner.”

His eyes dart back and forth across the busy street, and he shakes his head. “There’s nowhere to park. The closest garage is nearly at our building. I’ll call Harry. He and Patrick can run down here to grab them.”

“Don’t be silly.” I place my hand over his and squeeze his hand. “Double park in front of the store and wait for me. I’ll be in and out in two seconds.”

“Two seconds,” he gruffs, flipping on his hazard lights and pulling to a stop beside the car parked in front of the store’s entrance.

“Probably more like two minutes.” I smirk and pull the handle to open my door. Slipping from the SUV, I promise, “I’ll be fine.” I jog across the sidewalk and briskly make my way through the grocery store to the tiny produce section at the back.

Lifting a tomato, I give it a light squeeze to make sure it’s ripe but not too squishy before dropping it into the small plastic produce bag. I add two more to the bag, and as I reach for the fourth, I startle when a hand brushes my shoulder. Dropping the final tomato into my bag and tying a knot, I slowly turn around and tease, “I thought you were waiting in the car. Did you miss me that quickly?”

The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end when I’m met with a set of dark eyes instead of Liam’s stormy blues. “We’ve all missed you, malen’kaya printsessa ,” he purrs. His eyes hungrily roam over my body, and a devilish smile ticks at the corners of his mouth. “But you apparently aren’t so little anymore, are you?”

He runs his tattooed fingers along my jaw, and I pull from his unwanted touch. Swatting his hand away, my voice cracks when I snip, “I don’t know you. Don’t touch me.”

“But I know you.” He smirks, stepping toward me. I step backward to keep the distance between us, but my retreat is halted by the produce stand at my back. He leans forward against the stand, boxing me in between his arms.

My heart thumps in my ears as I begin to panic. I open my mouth to scream for help, but no sounds come . As much as I need Liam’s help, this can’t be how he finds out. He won’t understand, and he’ll never forgive me.

Fuck, I wouldn’t forgive me.

I already hate myself for not telling him. It didn’t matter when we met. When he took me on as a student, I told myself he didn’t need to know. Because he didn’t. We were temporary, and that part of my life—the one I had long before Viktor pushed me into this lifestyle—had no bearing on the years of training he wanted to correct. As I fell for him, I knew I had to tell him. But with all the time that passed, I couldn’t. This insignificant secret wasn’t nothing anymore. It was suddenly a massive fucking betrayal… A bomb that would implode the only relationship I’ve ever had with a genuinely good man.

A great fucking man…With a family I could have only dreamed of.

It’s been years— nearly six of them— since I’ve seen a single person from that part of my life. The last thing I ever expected in a city of eight million people was a chance encounter to be the thing that outed me.

I’ve been in here far too long, and I fully expect Liam to come barreling into the store like the white knight he is within seconds. Taking a deep breath, I place my hand on the burly man’s chest and shove him from me. “I said I don’t know you.”

“That may be so, but I definitely know you, Alexandra.” He no more than finishes the name and my stomach flops. I swallow the bile rising in my throat and try desperately to hide my reaction as I walk from him. He calls after me, “I’ll be sure to tell him you say hello.”

Curiosity getting the better of me, I stop in my tracks and turn to face him to ask, “Who?”

“Your br?—”

“Sasha? ” Liam calls as he makes his way into the store. When I don’t answer, his voice carries a tinge of worry. “ Mo mhuirnín? ” He spots me, his frantic gaze quickly softening when he finds me unharmed. At least physically .

“Are you okay?” he asks, wrapping his arm around my waist. Struggling to control my rapid breathing, I can only muster a nod. When I glance over my shoulder as Liam leads me toward the cashier, the man who cornered me isn’t there. Nervously, I whip my head around and scour the store as we walk, but I don’t see a trace of him.

“Y…yeah,” I finally stammer, lying, as I squeeze Liam’s hand on my hip. “I’m… I’m fine.”

He pushes us past the short line and drops a twenty on the counter to more than pay for the bag of tomatoes I forgot I still had in my hand. Helping me into the Suburban parked in the middle of the street, he huffs, “We don’t do that again.” Liam shuts my door and quickly rounds the front of the SUV with his concerned eyes on locked on mine.

He knows…