MAX
I could kill Nikolai Ivanov. I could wait for him in the dark and drag him into the shadows. I knew how to make a man scream. My cousins had taught me how when I was thirteen years old.
I wanted to make Nikolai scream. I craved to end him. Especially when Allie tucked her copper hair behind her ear and offered him a shy smile, her freckled cheeks flushing the sweetest shade of pink.
From my vantage point across the street from the restaurant, I could barely make out her pretty features, but I knew the lovely blush that came along with that cautious smile. I’d memorized every curve of her face, every nuance of her expressions. My fingers tingled with the remembered heat of her soft cheeks coloring beneath my gentle touch.
I’d never touched anyone the way I handled Allie: like she’d shatter if I didn’t keep my strength in check. She was so delicate in my rough hands. It’d taken all my willpower to restrain myself from fully unleashing my hunger on her when she’d invited me into her home and urged me to touch her wherever I wanted.
Virgin. No one had ever claimed Allie like I did. She’d never offered herself to another man.
And now, she was cozied up to my hated rival, allowing him to touch her with casual brushes of his greedy, entitled hands.
My fists clenched, and I tore my gaze away from the nauseating sight of them together.
I shouldn’t watch her like this. I shouldn’t want her: my enemy’s daughter.
But seeing her with that Russian bastard made my ever-present, fiery rage burst into a white-hot inferno. Nikolai was the son of Mikhail Ivanov, a ruthless oligarch who controlled the Brava in New York. Most people respected the billionaire businessman, but I knew what he really was. My mother had been murdered on his orders. And he’d helped Ron Fitzgerald, the beloved mayor and Allie’s father, destroy my entire family.
The fact that Nikolai was breathing the same air as Allie made me see red. Something dark and savage stirred in my chest, a black beast with razor-sharp claws that tried to tear its way out of me, to unleash itself on my enemy.
You are a monster, Max. The memory of Allie’s tear-streaked accusation seared my brain, burning deep enough to brand my soul.
My phone vibrated in my pocket, distracting me from the awful memory of her pale, crestfallen features on the night I’d betrayed her trust.
I scowled when I saw the contact details, and I hesitated a few long seconds before answering. I didn’t want to talk to my bitch of a sister, but I couldn’t risk avoiding her entirely. If I did, she might decide to come check up on me in person. The last thing I needed was Francesca finding out that I was still stalking Allie.
“What?” I snapped, connecting the call.
“Do you always have to be so rude, Max?” Francesca asked in her most saccharine tone. “I know you’re still angry that you had to break up with your precious princess, but it’s for your own good.”
I stifled a growl as rage flared hot in my chest. Yes, I’d been forced to give Allie up because my father had threatened her. When he’d found out about our relationship, he’d promised he would send my sadistic cousins after her. They would’ve torn her apart. If I hadn’t ended things with Allie—if I hadn’t broken something inside her—they would’ve hurt her.
Better for her to hate me. I’d tried to tell her all along that I was a monster. Now, she finally believed the terrible truth.
“What do you want, Francesca?” I demanded through gritted teeth as I watched Allie lean closer to Nikolai Ivanov. My fingers flexed around the phone in a pulse of aggression, and I forced down a deep breath. I couldn’t say anything that might tip off my sister that I was anywhere near Allie.
“Father has called a meeting,” she informed me, all the false sweetness evaporating from her sharp tone. “If you still value your place in this family at all, you’ll be there.”
I gnashed my teeth and tasted copper on my tongue. I valued my place in the family above everything else.
My ruined face tingled with the memory of my shame, and I scrubbed at the damaged flesh around my right eye.
“Text me the details. I’ll be there,” I vowed, edging the promise with warning before cutting off the call.
My sister thought I was a complete fuck-up, too weak to challenge her authority. But she would be at my mercy once I restored my place as heir.
When she’d discovered my relationship with Allie, I’d had to lie to my family and make up some bullshit story about how I’d been dating her to humiliate her father. I still hadn’t breathed a word about my real plan: to gather evidence that I could use to blackmail Ron Fitzgerald. If I obtained proof of his collusion with the Bratva, I could hold it over his head and tie his hands when it came to my family. He wouldn’t dare come after us again. We could rebuild what we’d lost. And I would be responsible for our resurgence.