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shark and the Hermanos!" He drew his fingers across his neck in a quick cutting motion.
"That was probably kicked off by something as stupid as an interest disagreement on an
outstanding loan."
Disappointed and exasperated with me, Nikolai muttered angrily and started flicking
through the canvases scheduled to be picked up by the gallery in the morning. When he
reached the one at the very back, the one I'd kept covered with a cloth, I raced forward to
stop him. After the way he'd reacted to the others, I figured this one was going to push
him over the edge. "No! Not that one!"
But it was too late.
He jerked free the cloth and froze rigid. Staggering backward, he put a hand to his
chest. For a moment, I thought he was actually going to have a heart attack. "Kolya?"
Chapter Four
Throat tight and gut clenching, Nikolai fought the panic threatening his control. That
picture that fucking picture!
She'd painted the night she'd been shot. It was the broken window, the panes smeared
with her blood, and the chest of the man who had pulled the trigger. She'd left all of the
man except for his tattooed chest blurry. He supposed that her traumatized, eleven-year-
old brain had only taken in that much of the shooter.
He glanced at Vivian, taking in the worry contorting her beautiful face. Did she know?
Had she somehow finally managed to remember more? Or was this image the extent of
her memories?
Voice gruff, he finally said, "You can't show this one."
His words seemed to shake her out of her stupor. "But I built the entire show around
this central piece."
"I don't care. This one isn't leaving the studio." He glanced around for something,
anything, to destroy it. "It can't exist."
She raced forward and placed her body between his and the painting. "Like fucking
hell!"
The shock of hearing her curse rendered him momentarily speechless. "Do you have
any idea what you're risking with this one?" He searched for the right words. "What if
someone recognizes those tattoos?"
"Good!" She shouted stridently. "I hope someone does recognize them. I hope
someone comes forward and fingers the bastard who blasted me with a 9mm and sent me
flying out of second-story window."
Though he maintained his outward composure, inwardly he flinched at the anger and
passion in her voice. What would she say if he broke down right now and told her the
truth? The whole awful, sordid fucking truth?
She would hate him. She would despise him. She would run from him and leave his
life forever.
And it would kill him. She was all that kept him tethered, all that kept him from
going completely into the darkness of the underworld he inhabited. For her, he'd tried to
walk a very fine line and had kept his crew out of the seedier, nastier forms of earning.
Though running guns and shifting narcotics cargo weren't things that would make her
proud, they were a hell of a lot cleaner than the sex trafficking that some of the other
syndicates in town ran.
Raking his fingers through his hair, he tried to make her understand. "Vee, so much
has happened since that night. You can't drag up history. You have to leave it alone."
She clicked her teeth and stomped her foot like a child. "I'm so sick of hearing that
from you. That's your answer for everything and I'm done with it."
"Vee "
"No! You're not going to persuade me to do what you want. Not this time." She swept
her hands out in front of her. "I worked so hard to get this show together."
His gut twisted as he realized what this was doing to her and how he was hurting her.
"I know you did."
"I'm not just talking about the actual painting either. From creating the concept to
finding the subjects and then snagging a show in the best damn gallery in Houston
that's hundreds of hours of work on top of school and my job." She furiously jabbed the
air between them. "You're not going to ruin this for me. I'm doing this show with all the
paintings."
He'd never in his life imagined there would be anything he would deny her but he'd
been wrong. "No, you're not."
She gritted her teeth. "I'd like to see you try and stop me."
"Don't push me, Vee." He let the harshness he used to keep his men in line infiltrate
his voice. It was the first time he'd ever dared to use that tone with her and he regretted
it instantly. He'd never seen such fury etched into her beautiful face.
Without a second of warning, she jumped forward and slammed both hands against
his chest. Thrown off-balance by her surprise attack, he stumbled backward and barely [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
