The decision is made before I can think better of it.
I could protect her from afar, but that will never work now. No, another plan filters in my head. One so incredibly stupid, I almost want to shoot myself in the foot to stop this shit.
As soon as the service concludes, I make my move without second-guessing it. I straighten my shoulders and slip on the mask of power I wear when dealing with my subordinates. My stride is assured, and several heads swivel as I glide by. I don’t pay them any attention. I fix my gaze on Sasha.
Her head lifts as I approach, and her eyes meet mine.
They’re cornflower blue, ringed in gray. Mesmerizing.
Like the sky at dusk when the sun is setting. They sparkle in the light and draw people to them like a magnet with their intensity.
She looks at me with curiosity, her eyes narrowing as she must be trying to place who I am. But as I step closer, her features shift, and a scowl forms on her face.
She’s pissed.
That much I can tell.
I don’t need to wait long to find out why, because the next thing I know, she’s stalking toward me.
“How dare you,” she hisses, her voice low, but still, there’s a bite. “I know who you are.”
I smirk, unable to help the reaction. “Do you now?”
“You’re the reason my brother was on drugs. You’re the reason he’s dead.”
For a moment, I’m speechless. Despite the end of my relationship with Roman, that accusation landed like a blow to the gut. The feeling doesn’t last long, though. Pure fascination replaces it.
No one speaks to me like this.
They’d die if they did.
Yet this tiny, beautiful woman isn’t afraid of me at all. And she claims to know about me. About my dealings.
“Why. Are. You. Here?” she grits through her teeth, enunciating each word.
My lips part, but no words come out.
She’s a spitfire.
And I like it.
Fuck…this shit turns me on. She turns me on.
“What are you smirking at?” she hisses, and I can’t help but smile wider.
“You.”
She looks like she’s about to throttle me. “You have a lot of nerve.” She can’t contain the volume of her voice. It rises to a pitch, drawing stares from those around us.
“Careful, firefly,” I warn, never removing my eyes from hers.
Her small hands ball into fists. “Careful? What areyougoing to do?”
I move closer, ready to answer her question, when the fucking cop sidles up to her.
“Everything okay?” he says, pulling Sasha into his side as if he has the right.
That move will cost him his life. Painfully, too.