Fredrick_Udele

The hottest man I’ve ever seen is now my new boss—
and I’m stuck in a house with him…
Until one of us cracks.

I’ve got debt—yeah, I know, so does everyone else on Planet Earth.
But the bills I’m paying keep my dad and my grandma alive.
So it’s pretty messed-up for Timofey Viktorov to use them as a threat to keep me under control.

Not that he cares.
As a billionaire CEO, he takes no prisoners in the boardroom.
And as the don of the Viktorov Bratva, he takes no prisoners in real life, either.

Which is why he has no qualms about extorting me into taking his deal.
Live in my mansion…
Care for my baby…
Or suffer the consequences.

But he’s not the only one with an agenda.
Timofey has skeletons in his closet—and I’m determined to dig them out.
He’s just as determined to keep me far away from the secrets of his past.

The longer I’m in his house, the tenser things get.
Every time we brush past each other in the hallway, something sparks.
Every time we cross paths in the night, the ice grows thinner.

Sooner or later, it’s going to crack.

Whiskey Poison

That single word—sorry—smashes through the locked box where I shove thoughts about my mother. All of the guilt and anger I don't have time for explodes out of me in a torrent I don't expect. It paints a new world on top of the real one. Or rather, an old world. A world I thought I left behind.


Right now, I'm not seeing Piper Quinn, petite and red-headed and naive; I'm seeing a six-foot-tall man with a mustache and a collared shirt. I glare at her, and she shrinks back from the hatred I'm sure she can see written all over my face.


"My mother needed help. She didn't need someone to take her only reason for living away. She didn't need yet another reason to give up."


Piper shakes her head. Tears are welling in her eyes. "I'm so sorry, Timofey. I'm so—"


If my caseworker was standing in front of me right now, I'd kill him. There wouldn't even be time for him to get an apology out.


CHAPTER 54