Princess in Lingerie (Lingerie 12)

“I don’t love her…if that’s what you’re asking.”

“But you care about her enough to think about risking everything to help her.”

“I guess…”

“Sounds complicated.”

I chuckled with pain in my heart. “You’re telling me. I was trying to think of a plan to get what I want and avoid the war. Maybe I could save her and save my family at the same time.”

“What’s your idea?”

“There’s only one possibility—fake her death.”

Griffin was quiet as he considered what I said.

“If I can make Egor believe she killed herself, then he could forget about her. I could wire the money he paid me, and that would be the end of it.”

“She could never really be free, though,” he said. “Because if he spots her somewhere, it could destroy your entire plan.”

“Well…she offered me something if I saved her.”

Griffin’s grin was obvious over the line. “I think I know what it is.”

“So she would be with me anyway. I guess her kid would be too. I would probably sell this place and move to Tuscany, start over in a new place.”

“The plan is plausible. But if Egor is an egomaniac, he’s not going to let you make him look like a fool. He’s going to want to see the body for proof—so he won’t be outsmarted.”

“That’s what I was worried about.”

“And if this woman is as alluring as you make her seem…then he’ll probably be suspicious of you.”

“Agreed. So the only way I could accomplish this is with another body…but that’s not going to happen.”

Bones was quiet for a long time before he spoke. “I can make that happen.”

“What?” I blurted. “You have a body?”

“I know a guy.”

“Who just has dead bodies lying around?”

“Something like that,” he said vaguely.

“But the corpse would have to look identical to her. She would have to be decomposed at the perfect amount.”

“I realize that,” he said. “But if we tell him that Mia died in a fire, it could ruin her features enough to make her indistinguishable.”

“She killed herself by burning herself alive? That sounds extreme.”

“Tell him she did it after she overheard your conversation. The idea of going back to him was so disturbing that she killed herself. You kept her locked up in her room, so the only option was to burn herself alive.”

“Why would she be exposed to fire?”

“She could have had a candle in her room. Lit the drapes on fire. Then the room caught on fire…and the flames engulfed her. By the time you got there and put it out, she was dead.”

“Sounds extreme…”

“It’s the only option you have.”

It seemed like a plan that could easily go wrong. “And then what? Hide her forever?”

“He’ll forget about her eventually. But it’ll take a few years for that to happen. She’ll have to stay close to you for a while. Private property where he can’t even see through the gates.”

“Yeah…” The idea of her and her son living with me didn’t bother me, surprisingly. Especially with the offer she’d given me, that would be the ideal situation. A part of me knew I should help her because it was the right thing to do and not make her uphold her end of the bargain.

But I wasn’t that kind of man.

If I was going to take this kind of risk, I wanted something out of it.

I wanted her.

Griffin spoke again. “So, what are you going to do?”

“Fuck…I don’t know.”

“You’ve got to decide soon. When are you supposed to give her back?”

“Friday.”

“Shit. You need to decide now. Because you’re going to have to catch that room on fire and put it out again, just in case he checks.”

“I’m gonna have to burn my own house?” I asked incredulously.

“A controlled fire.”

“Sorry, don’t have much experience with that.”

“I’ll help you.”

“You know a lot about this stuff…”

He chuckled over the phone. “I’ve seen a lot of shit in my young life. Does that mean you’re in?”

It seemed like too much work for one woman, but I knew handing her over would haunt me for the rest of my life. She was a good person. Her only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Her freedom was taken from her as if she’d never had it in the first place. If she hadn’t gone to that bar with her friends, her life would have been completely different. She was beautiful and exceptional. She deserved to be with her son, to have a man she wanted to be with.

But all of that was stolen from her.

I shouldn’t want to help her, but I’d grown fond of her over the last month.

Doing nothing didn’t seem like an option.

“Carter?” Griffin’s voice interrupted my thoughts. “You need to decide now.”

I kept thinking about the tears in her eyes, the way she spoke about her son. Her heart was on her sleeve, and she showed her resilience when she threatened to kill me. She slashed me with that knife, willing to do anything to escape. There was nothing that could keep her from her son…from raising him to be a man.