Cunning Vows: Enemies to Lovers Dark Romance (Lethal Vows Book 3)
Chapter 17

When we pull up, I see five men all smoking and leaning against their cars. River gets out of the car first and walks around to open my door. When I get out, his hand slides to my lower back as he leads me toward the group of men. I grit my teeth at his possessiveness but allow it.

My security dropped off tailing us about ten minutes ago, at least that’s what they’ve made River believe. They’ll be far enough away to go undetected, but both are extremely talented with a sniper rifle.

I make sure not to step in any of the puddles from the rainfall that evidently happened before we arrived.

All the men turn to me, but Igor speaks first.

“Hello,” he says to River in a very thick Russian accent, but he keeps his gaze on me.

“This is Anya Ivanov,” River says, introducing me.

“Russian?” the man says to me. “Privet.” He nods.

“Privet.” I greet him back. He goes to say something else, but River cuts him off.

“English, if you both wouldn’t mind,” River commands.

Igor looks at me and nods before he says to River, “Of course. I wasn’t aware that we would have guests.” And I’ve been around enough pissing contests to know that I’m not welcome simply because I’m a woman.

“I wasn’t aware this was your meeting to dictate who comes and goes. Do you want the guns or not?” River replies as he lights a cigarette, and I do all that I can not to sneer at it. Disgusting.

Igor considers this, but there’s really nothing to contemplate. A man like him wouldn’t have flown all this way, with a security team of four men, if he didn’t want this business. “You know I like what I’ve seen.”

“Forty million for the lot.” River smiles at him, but it’s not a friendly smile. If he even has one of those. It’s more of, who the fuck do you think you’re talking to.

“Hmm.” Igor muses while he takes a puff of his cigarette. His gaze slides to me again as he gives me a once-over. “You aren’t related to Aleksandr Ivanov by any chance?” he asks me, ignoring River for the moment.

“My brother,” I confirm. He nods and smiles. His men whisper something.

“Not just a pretty face, then,” Igor remarks. River’s hand presses into my back, and I know it’s a warning to “be good.” My gaze hits his, and his autumn eyes are screaming exactly that. Why do I give a fuck if he loses forty million? Or perhaps it’s a reminder that Igor might be fishing, looking for a bargain or weakness within River to favor this deal.

Igor continues. “Your brother was back home not long ago, looking for a girl.” I go to step forward, but River takes hold of my arm. It’s on reflex. It’s the first amount of valuable news I’ve heard since the day Alek went missing.

A girl?

My brother?

Impossible.

“How do you know it was him?” I ask Igor. He looks back at his men and says something in Russian. I can’t pick it all up, but I got the part about him wearing gloves.

“Strong man, wears gloves, and hates to be touched,” Igor says.

“When?” I demand.

“Two weeks ago,” Igor replies casually, smiling to reveal a gold-plated tooth.

“Who was the girl?” Because that’s the most unlikely part of this entire story.

“River,” Igor says to River, ignoring my last question. “I don’t care to entertain your fling any longer. I’ll accept your forty million in good faith that I will be considered the first choice in your next collection.”

“Fling?” I scoff.

“Anya,” River warns.

“No.” I jerk my arm free of River. Fuck this guy and these men. I’ve played nice for far too long. “Do you not know who I am? Whose fucking city you’re in?”

“Apologies if we’ve offended you, miss,” Igor says insincerely.

I laugh hysterically. I’m hungry and pissed. The last fucking thing I needed on my plate was another asshole thinking he has some entitlement to fuck with me in my own city. The men look at one another.

“Miss?” I reply rhetorically. “Oh, now come on, Igor. That just won’t do. My name is Anya Ivanov, and don’t forget it.”

I raise my hand, and, suddenly, a bullet is shot straight through the eyes of the man standing next to Igor. With a wicked smile, I pretend to blow out smoke at the tip of my fingers. Perhaps I forgot to mention how exceptional my men are with long-range shooting.

Igor’s men explode into action, pulling out guns and aiming at me, and my carnal smile only grows as I open my arms wide, daring them to fucking try. “You’re in my fucking city!” I shout. A reminder to them and River. “And you will play by my rules and bow to a woman while doing it. Do you fucking understand?”

Igor holds his hand out to ensure his men don’t shoot, and River’s stepped closer to me now. How chivalrous, but I doubt he’d really take a bullet for me. Or maybe he will. Maybe even he is no exception to my charm.

“Now, tell me. Who was the girl?” I ask again, and this time, any politeness is dipped in venom.

Igor looks at River, who I can feel is glaring at me. But I don’t care. He should know the risks involved in taking me on. If he did his research better, he would know that being quiet and a “good girl” are not qualities I possess.

“You killed my man,” Igor accuses without heat.

“You underestimated me. Why? Is it because I’m a woman?” I ask him.

He seems mildly amused. Now he looks at me like he would’ve if I were a man. Much like he respected River, he now holds the same impression of me.

I don’t play when it comes to power.

I am power.

“Yes, I do think I judged you for being a woman. Next time, I will know better,” Igor agrees. “He was chasing some dancer. That’s as much as I know.”

A dancer?

Why?

I raise my chin and step out of River’s grasp. “Finish up your business. I’ll wait for you in your car. Move it along, I have things to do.” River’s jaw clenches, and I purposely walk out of his range so he can’t reach for me. Because the way his gaze burns into me, I know he wants to pull me into him, and I don’t know if it’s to punish me or fuck me. Both are fine with me if they’re mixed together and clear my debt.

When I walk away, I overhear Igor speak. “Dangerous game you are playing with a dangerous woman there, River.”

Who knows? Perhaps out of the two, Igor’s the smarter man.

I slam the door shut behind me and curse feverishly in Russian. I want to kick and tear apart the interior of his car, but I know it’ll do very little to remedy my frustration.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

I pluck my phone out of my clutch on the bottom of the car floor and hit call.

“Come on, Alek, pick up. Please,” I say quietly.

Ring.

Ring.

Voicemail.

I explode. “You’re in Russia? Really, Alek? Are you still there, or have you just jumped to the next country while having a fucking holiday?”

I expect a chastising comment, but I’m left with his cold rebuff that’s wounded me more than anything else I care to admit. I bite my bottom lip as I look around. It’s dark, and the only light is from the cars. River is still speaking with Igor and his men.

“A dancer, Alek? You’re chasing a dancer?” I scoff into the phone. “You didn’t even tell me about her. We tell each other everything. How could you leave me for a woman? You left me in the lurch with debts, and now I have to spread my legs to pay for them.” I hear myself and laugh.

“Wow, I never thought I’d be complaining about sex. Alek, this is fucking torture. River says he wants to fuck me to wipe your debt clean, but he won’t actually fuck me. I’m on fucking edge because I can’t sleep or eat. And I’m not being fucked! This is all your fault!”

Now I’m just rambling, maybe even going insane, as I talk into the phone as if Alek is actually listening. I hate that it offers me some kind of comfort, a luxury I’m not too familiar with. Only ever with my brother.

But River’s seriously gotten under my skin. I can’t read him or understand the pull I have toward him. I enjoy sex because of the power it gives me over men. I need to solidify that with River because he’s the only man thus far who has made me feel like my power is slipping ever so slightly.

Through the rearview mirror, I see River approaching the car, and immediately squash my thundering rage. My feelings toward him are not Alek’s fault, but it feels good to blame him anyway considering all the other shit he’s put me through lately. Now, it feels like I only have a few more moments with Alek. Even though he’s not here with me now. I know he’s somewhere out there, listening to these voice messages eventually.

“Alek, please just tell me what’s happening. I have to go because tall, dark, and brooding is walking over. Oh, by the way, I hope we don’t have anything to do with a guy named Igor because I kind of killed one of his men. Okay, bye.”

I hang up as River opens the door and sits in the driver’s seat, a cigarette hanging between his lips. I wind down my window, snatch it out of his mouth, and throw it out. “Smoking’s fucking disgusting.”

“Do you really want to push me to the edge tonight, Anya, after the stunt you just pulled?” He glowers as he twists in my direction.

I drop my bottom lip. “Wishing you didn’t splurge on those jewels for me since I’ve been such a bad girl?”

He smiles, a lethal edge to it as he grabs my cheeks and squeezes. “You keep dropping that bottom lip like that, Red, and I might be inclined to cut it off.”

I smile in return. “As if you’d fucking dare when you dream of these lips around your cock every night. And besides, need I remind you that I have a gun pointed at the back of your head? Now, fucking drive. I’m hungry and want to go home.”

River’s smile widens and then his eyes light with frightful amusement as his tattooed knuckles flex on the wheel, his one singular ring shining from the interior light.

I have the feeling he’s about to do something crazy.

I’m all for crazy.