Trey - Shandi Boyes Page 0,16

six years ago, I’m reasonably sure my father’s bid to seize control of Prague would have been successful.

Alas, not every man who carries your blood is your ally.

With sirens growing stronger, Nikolai guides Justine to the first fleet of SUVs while I finish loading up the ones that will follow him. We’re looking at piling over a dozen women into three SUVs.

With figures not stacking up, I take advantage of the situation. “You can travel with me.”

The petite blonde’s eyes rocket to mine when I stop her from entering the vehicle on the heel of the woman she hasn’t let out of her sight for a minute. Dirty blonde hair falls in front of her face when she vigorously shakes her head.

I can see the denial in her eyes, smell it pumping out of her, but what can I say, I’m an arrogant prick who doesn’t like taking no for an answer. “I wasn’t asking.”

After shoving a woman with more meat on her frame than the one standing in front of me, I slam the door shut, tap on the roof to signal for Nikolai’s fleet to commence moving, then shift on my feet to face the unnamed blonde.

I’ve barely cranked my neck halfway around when the crack of her fist on my jaw thrusts my head back further than what’s natural. She swung at me so hard, my jaw will ache for a week.

What did I tell you? She’s got spunk.

Even though I usually retaliate to violence with violence, I don’t do that this time around. Not only are my fists not close to being clenched, the blonde is hightailing it away from me. For how fragile her legs look, they shouldn’t be able to pump as well as they do.

She races up the stairs at the speed of lightning, only stopping when I growl out, “If you want to see your sister again, get your ass in my car.”

Confident about my assessment of her desperateness, I jog around to the driver’s side of my car, crank open the door, then slide in behind the steering wheel. A voice inside of me screams for me not to be a prick, but it isn’t the only noise I’m hearing.

My heart is also thudding in my ears.

It hasn’t done that in a very long time.

I stop assessing the rarity of my pulse beeping in my ears when the crank of a handle breaks through the oddity. The blonde slips into the passenger seat so soundlessly if her unique scent didn’t stir my cock, I wouldn’t have realized my ruse had worked. She doesn’t have a pure smell, but it’s most certainly enticing. It is roughish and dark and has me recalling a damp, obscure place where two people could cause a heap of trouble.

With my hands wringing my steering wheel, I push out, “Put on your seat belt. Don’t want you getting hurt.”

I don’t look at her, but I feel her eyes on me for eight long heartbeats before she does as told. Once the familiar click of a latch being locked into place sounds through my ears, I crank the engine, pull my car next to the stairs she raced up mere seconds ago, then grab a box of matches out of the glove compartment. Although I have no clue what the fuck my game plan is tonight, this feels as right as it did when I followed India into the butler’s pantry at her family compound.

I can only hope it doesn’t end as disastrously.

“Do you want the pleasure, or shall I?”

When I shove the matches the blonde’s way, she peers at me with wide and apprehensive eyes. I’m dying for her to talk, to say one of the many thoughts I see in her head, but I also like her quiet. I get an immense amount of satisfaction from silence, and I won’t mention how it doubles the tension teeming between us, or you’ll think I’m as insane as Vladimir once was.

“Go on,” I say with a nudge of my head. “Send the bastard to hell where he belongs.”

With a faint dip of her chin, she pulls one of the matches out of the box before dragging it down the flint. I realize just how weak she is when she can’t run the matchhead down the side of the box with enough force to get a spark. Believing I was the only thing standing between her and freedom, she put all her strength into hitting me, so she doesn’t