Russian Enforcer's Reluctant Bride Read Online Free PDF

the suitcase awaiting her on the comforter, she took a decision and picked up her GSM from the side table where she’d carelessly dropped it.
    Searching for the number of the cab company she’d contacted earlier, she dialed it, hoping they would have a night desk. When the call connected, her heart leaped in relief. “Yes, this is Joanna Royale? I called earlier about a cab ride to the airport. I’ve changed my mind. Would it be possible to send someone out here right away?” She anxiously waited for the response, and when it was affirmative, she closed her eyes in a silent thank you to whoever was watching over her.
    The moment the receptionist disconnected, she put in another call, this time to the airline. She’d booked a nine o’clock flight to Montana, but something told her she’d better take an earlier one lest Vitaly’s men showed up to waylay her. She had little luck on this front, however, the nine o’clock turning out to be the earliest flight out. She’d just have to hope whoever was gunning for her would postpone their mission long enough for her to make it out of here alive.
    In a way she had Vitaly to thank for giving her a heads-up. If not for him, she would have been sound asleep in her bed, unaware of the danger that was looming overhead.
    She silently closed the suitcase and carted it down the stairs, followed by an eagerly yapping Ram. The little doggie knew that new adventures awaited and was all eagerness to get a move on. He was a smart one. Jonathan had always hated the little dog, and the feeling had been mutual. She should have known better than to dismiss Ram’s sentiments on the matter. A dog always knows.
    She stepped into the living room, and the sight that met her eyes sent a jolt of anger and sadness through her. Furniture had been overturned, table and chairs hurled haphazardly across the small space, and the flatscreen TV Jonathan had been so fond of to watch his football games had been smashed to the floor. On the wall, one of the intruders had written in an aggressive scrawl, ‘Piks Mast Pey’.
    Ignoring the thugs’ bad spelling, she slung a hand before her mouth at the mess the men had left, and felt her knees go wobbly. Why did people have to do such horrible things? Then, just as abruptly, the anger she’d been directing at the unknown assailants, abruptly was turned on Jonathan instead. If he had never taken money from the wrong people and then screwed them over, this would never have happened.
    She wondered if Vitaly had spoken the truth when he said there was no other woman. Had Jon simply up and left her to deal with the backlash of his gambling addiction and money problems? That made him worse than merely an adulterer. It made him an accessory to a crime. The crime of putting her in harm’s way.
    Helplessly, she shook her head as tears stung behind her eyes, then broke free and rolled down her cheeks. Angrily, she dabbed at them with her sleeve. No more tears for Jonathan. Not a single one. Her old life was over, and from now on she would simply disappear and start over.
    When the doorbell rang, she started. She hadn’t heard the cab drive up. She wiped her eyes, adjusted her azure fleece with orange trim, and quickly moved over to the door, picking up her handbag from the entryway dresser. As she emerged from the living room and started uttering a greeting to the cab driver, she was driven back by the force of a man’s blow.
    The door still hanging from its hinges from Vitaly’s ‘visit’, her visitor had silently stolen inside and had lain in waiting.
    As she crashed to the floor, her chest aflame from the impact of the punch, she found herself looking into the darkest eyes she’d ever witnessed, the only other thing registering before he was upon her that this was no taxi driver.
    He grabbed the front of her pullover and yanked her up, so her face was level with his. An angry scar slashed his left brow, and a wispy mustache adorned an upper lip that was