Librairie
Rechercher
Accueil / Romance / The Bet That Ruined Us / Chapter 227

Partager

Chapter 227

Auteur: Lia's Ink
last update Date de publication: 2026-10-29 06:39:28

[VOLKOV COMPOUND - BASEMENT, NIGHT]

The stitches were clean.

Ivan had done them himself, the way he'd learned to do most things that needed doing, without asking for help and without making noise about the process. Eleven cuts sewn shut, each one precise and deliberate, his father's signature written across his chest and his forearm in a language Ivan had been fluent in since childhood.

He sat at the table in the center of the basement with the map spread out in front of him and his eyes moving
Continuez à lire ce livre gratuitement
Scanner le code pour télécharger l'application
Previous Chapter Next Chapter
Chapitre verrouillé

Dernier chapitre

  • The Bet That Ruined Us    Chapter 229

    [CITY STREET - OUTSIDE THE GROCERY STORE, AFTERNOON]The automatic doors slid shut behind Wendy and the afternoon sun landed full on her face.She hitched the paper bag higher on her hip and tightened her grip on her purse, and the sleeves of the jacket slid down over her hands. She pushed them back to her wrists. They fell again before she'd finished walking to the curb.The jacket hung off her shoulders and the sleeves ended past her fingertips. It had been draped over the back of her couch since the morning the biker walked out of her apartment, and for three days she had walked past it and said she was keeping it safe until it could be returned. On Tuesday she'd pulled it on to carry the trash downstairs. She had not taken it off since, except to shower and sleep.It smelled like leather and engine oil. When the wind lifted the collar, something warmer came up from underneath that she couldn't name, and she tugged the lapels closer against her jaw without deciding to.She hadn't s

  • The Bet That Ruined Us    Chapter 228

    [GRAYSON CROSS MANSION - ANGEL'S ROOM, MORNING]Ayven stood outside Angel's door with his knuckles an inch from the handle.She had left the breakfast table forty minutes ago. He had watched her push her scrambled eggs from one side of her plate to the other without lifting the fork once, then tell Shayla she wasn't hungry, then carry a book up the stairs with both arms pressed flat against her chest. There was no lesson today and nobody was coming to the house at nine, yet her door had stayed shut since.He knocked twice.Nothing came back. Downstairs, Madonna let out one thin cry that stopped as soon as it started, and he heard Shayla's voice murmur something soft. He leaned his ear toward the door, caught himself doing it, and straightened up with his face hot.He knocked twice again, harder."Angel.""Come in." Her voice reached him a few seconds late.He turned the handle and pushed the door open.The curtains were drawn halfway, so one wide band of light lay across the carpet an

  • The Bet That Ruined Us    Chapter 227

    [VOLKOV COMPOUND - BASEMENT, NIGHT]The stitches were clean.Ivan had done them himself, the way he'd learned to do most things that needed doing, without asking for help and without making noise about the process. Eleven cuts sewn shut, each one precise and deliberate, his father's signature written across his chest and his forearm in a language Ivan had been fluent in since childhood.He sat at the table in the center of the basement with the map spread out in front of him and his eyes moving across it. Victoria Cross. Her patterns over the past four months, the routes she used, the times she moved, the security that Albert had put around her since the warehouse.His father had given him Friday.There was no version of Friday where this didn't go exactly right. He understood that with the particular clarity of a man who had watched his brother's body hit the ground six hours ago and had not been permitted to look at it.He traced a route on the map with one finger, pressed down on a

  • The Bet That Ruined Us    Chapter 226

    [VOLKOV MOB- NIGHT]The compound's center was open to the sky.The men who were in the vicinity of it didn't look at what was happening there directly. They looked at the ground in front of them or at some point in the middle distance and they kept their faces doing nothing and their bodies completely still and they didn't look.Ivan and Jake stood bare chested in the center of it.The night was cold enough that it showed in the skin, the involuntary tightening of the body's surface against the temperature, and neither of them acknowledged it. They stood with their shoulders back and their eyes forward and they waited."How many times in the last four months have you failed me?" Don Bolkov asked.His voice was calm. Soft. Almost gentle.Don Volkov walked a slow circle around them. He wasn't hurrying. He never hurried anything. The small pocket knife was open in his right hand, the blade catching the compound lights as he moved, and he turned it between his fingers with the casual fami

  • The Bet That Ruined Us    Chapter 225

    [GRAYSON CROSS MANSION - LIVING ROOM]Shayla looked up from her phone when Matthew came into the room. He was standing in the doorway with his hands clasped in front of him. His face was pale. His eyes kept moving around the room, landing on things and then moving away before they could settle. She noticed the way he was holding himself, the stiffness in his shoulders, the way his chest was rising and falling too quickly."Mrs. Cross." His voice came out small. Almost quiet. "I need to tell you something."Shayla set her phone down on the cushion beside her. She turned her body toward him and folded her hands in her lap. "Okay. I'm listening."Matthew took a step into the room. His hands were shaking. He pressed them together hard, the fingers of one hand wrapping around the fingers of the other, and he squeezed until his knuckles went white. His breathing was fast and shallow, the breath moving in and out of his chest too quickly, like he had been running and could not stop."It's ab

  • The Bet That Ruined Us    Chapter 224

    [GRAYSON CROSS MANSION - BABY MADONNA'S NURSERY - SAME MORNING]The nursery was warm and quiet. The curtains were drawn halfway, letting in a soft light that fell across the crib and the rocking chair and the rug on the floor. The room smelled like baby powder and clean linen and the faint lavender scent of the diffuser on the dresser.Shayla sat in the rocking chair with baby Madonna in her arms. The baby was nursing, her small mouth working steadily, her tiny hand curled against Shayla's chest. She was so small. Shayla looked down at her daughter's face and felt the familiar ache in her chest, the one that came every time she held her, the one that was equal parts love and fear and the desperate hope that this child would never know the kind of pain that had marked the lives of everyone around her.The door opened.Ayven stood in the doorway. His hands were shoved in his pockets and his face was set in a frown that made him look older than his nine years. He had been quiet since th

  • The Bet That Ruined Us    Chapter Forty Seven

    Grayson sat at his desk pretending to review quarterly reports while actually watching Shayla out of the corner of his eye.She had been different since she came to work in the morning. Distant. Distracted. The easy warmth that had been building between them over the past th

    last updateDernière mise à jour : 2026-03-22

  • The Bet That Ruined Us    Chapter Forty Eight

    Ruby stared at the woman in the doorway, taking in every detail of her appearance. She was beautiful. Effortlessly so. The kind of natural beauty that did not need makeup or styling to shine. Her dark hair fell in soft waves around her face, and her skin had that dewy glow that suggested she had ju

    last updateDernière mise à jour : 2026-03-22

  • The Bet That Ruined Us    Chapter forty five

    The evening sun cast long shadows across Shayla's living room as she sat curled up on the couch, a mug of chamomile tea cooling in her hands. Three weeks had passed since Grayson showed up at her apartment with flowers and chocolate and period supplies, and somehow, everything had shifted.Not dram

    last updateDernière mise à jour : 2026-03-21

  • The Bet That Ruined Us    Chapter Forty two

    A piece of paper fell from between the flowers, floating down to land on her desk.Shayla picked it up with trembling hands.Three words in Grayson's bold handwriting.“I'm sorry, Ayla.”She stared at those words, at the flowers, at the man still kneeling in his office watching her through the glas

    last updateDernière mise à jour : 2026-03-21
Plus de chapitres

Vous vous intéresseriez aussi à

Découvrez et lisez de bons romans gratuitement
Accédez gratuitement à un grand nombre de bons romans sur GoodNovel. Téléchargez les livres que vous aimez et lisez où et quand vous voulez.
Lisez des livres gratuitement sur l'APP
Scanner le code pour lire sur l'application
DMCA.com Protection Status