Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 100086 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100086 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
He wasn’t liking his odds, though.
* * *
Olivia stripped Hadley down as the bath filled, her thoughts a thousand miles away. Every time she turned around, Cillian was surprising the hell out of her. First, he’d put himself out there to get her somewhere safe, then he’d made sure she was eating and had taken care of Hadley. Taken care of her, right from the second she first reached out to him. She didn’t know what to think of that.
No, that was a lie. She knew exactly what to think of it. She liked it. She liked it a lot. In a world filled with untrustworthy and downright murderous men, Cillian stood apart as a shining star of virtue. She snorted. Okay, maybe not virtue. Very little of what they’d done together since they met was virtuous, but that didn’t change the fact that he had yet to betray her.
She looked around the bathroom, taking in the understated décor. The entire house was made up like that, comfortable and attractive and downright cozy now that night had set in. Something had changed in Cillian when they got out of the car below. He hadn’t quite relaxed—she’d caught him putting himself between her and Hadley and any door or window to the outside—but he looked almost more at home out here than he did in Boston in his fancy suits.
Being out here with him was so…domestic. Well, domestic with a dash of sheer fatalism since her half brother and ex were no doubt figuring out right around now that she wasn’t in her apartment. She’d called Benji on the way out here, so at least he wasn’t going to worry about her.
That didn’t stop her from worrying about everyone back in Boston, though. She hadn’t meant to make friends and start to care about people. Her plan wasn’t to be a pillar on her own, exactly, but she’d known that there was a decent chance Boston wasn’t her final destination, so she’d tried to keep some distance between herself and the people around her.
She washed Hadley’s back. Obviously, from the way both Benji and Mrs. Richards reacted, she’d failed miserably.
More than that, it hurt her to leave them behind. She hadn’t realized how much she’d enjoyed her time in Jameson’s until faced with the fact that she might never go back there. And Mrs. Richards was a saint put on this earth to keep her tethered to reality when her past got too close. What if she never saw them again?
She carefully poured a cup of water over her daughter’s head. It doesn’t matter. I’ll miss them, but Hadley is more important than anyone else. Keeping her out of Romanov hands isn’t negotiable.
And Sergei?
She dumped more baby bath wash into her hand and went to work on Hadley’s unruly mane of hair. If she thought for a second that Sergei had any interest at all in their daughter beyond trying to please Dmitri, maybe things would be different. She’d grown up with one parent who borderline hated her, and the other who was almost completely checked out. She knew how important parents—good parents—were. If Sergei actually loved their daughter, she wouldn’t hide Hadley from him.
But he didn’t.
At best, he saw her as a pawn to get Olivia back to his side. He didn’t understand that Olivia would never be his again, or that he’d burned that bridge all on his own without any help from anyone else. Dmitri and Andrei hadn’t ordered him to bring her to the house, but Sergei had known they wouldn’t be happy if she disappeared, so he’d taken it upon himself to deliver her there. He’d used her freedom to propel himself even higher within the ranks. Even over a year later, it made her sick to think about.
She washed Hadley quickly, and sat back on her heels and let her daughter splash around in the water. As foolish as it was, she couldn’t help comparing Sergei’s actions to Cillian’s. The latter stood to gain quite a bit once he knew who she was. Dmitri wanted her back, and he wanted her back badly. Delivering her to him would be a great way to foster goodwill between their families, and she didn’t see how Cillian wouldn’t benefit from that.
He still might.
No, he wouldn’t. She was sure of it—as sure as she could be of anything. He didn’t see her as a political piece to be moved around for his benefit—an asset to be leveraged. He saw her as a woman. It was a sad state of events that that was so novel, but there it was.
Or maybe she was wrong. Maybe she was so wrapped up in thinking the best of him that she was blinding herself to what was really going on.
But she didn’t think so.