Lahat ng Kabanata ng Reckless Hearts: Kabanata 91 - Kabanata 100

Levi waited long enough for the door to shut behind Holly as she stepped onto the patio before turning his full wrath on Andrei. "You fucking lied to me. At The Castle, you looked me in the eye and assured me nothing was going on between you two." "That's because nothing was going on," Andrei retorted, matching his fierce tone. "Obviously, something's definitely going on now! Otherwise, Holly wouldn't be all cosied up in your clothes!" "What do you expect her to wear? I don't have any women's clothes—" "Fuck, Drei!" Levi growled in frustration. "That's not the point!" "Then what is?" Andrei asked as he watched him about to sit at the kitchen island—the same kitchen island he had Holly sprawled over not too long ago. The red-hot images of their sweaty bodies and their carnal cries, while they were deep in the throes of passion, flashed in Andrei's mind, and he instantly hardened at the memory of Holly's smooth, velvety warmth sheathed around him— "So?" Levi snapped his finger

Andrei had seen death more times than he cared to count in the past. He'd had close brushes with it, too. In fact, with all the violence in his world, he'd become so desensitised to it that even the smell of it didn't bother him anymore.But this was Holly. The woman he was supposed to marry. The woman he intended to build a life with. She couldn't be dead. Not like this. Not on his watch."No, Holly, Baby, wake up!" He whispered as he tightly shut his eyes and mentally shook the terrifying image from his mind, praying that the next time he opened them again, his life would be exactly as it was before they came to bed just an hour ago. But when he dared open his eyes again, blinking several times just to make sure his mind was not playing tricks on him, and the same brutal scene greeted him, another primal scream reverberated through the room. How?How did any of this happen?Holly was alive and well just an hour ago. But now…now she was as cold as death."It's impossible!"

"Drug lord?" Andrei stammered, Holly's words knocking the wind right out of him. Yes, he was the head honcho of a criminal organisation and knew precisely the damage his drugs were doing, not just in Rock Castle, but the world over. But ever since he took over from Leks, he'd learned to dissociate and compartmentalise. There were two Andreis inside him, fighting daily for control. One understood his duty to the family and what it took to keep the money coming in. Then there was the other Andrei, who deplored everything about the family business, especially the legacy his father had built on so much bloodshed and tears. And it was this Andrei Colleen had reached out to when she found herself neck-deep in the underworld scene. Watching Colleen fight off her addiction and almost die from withdrawal symptoms in one of her father's abandoned warehouses, Andrei had sworn he'd never go through that again with someone he cared for.But here he was, about to repeat the cycle with Holly.Was

"You know the rules," Igor stepped in. If there was ever a time when Andrei wanted to throttle him, it was then. He not only knew the rules, but also enforced them diligently by subjecting the family's top management to random drug testing and running background checks on potential girlfriends. So, Igor playing the rules card felt like a fucking slap in the face."Holly is compromised," insisted Ivan, siding with Igor. "She's bad for business!""Watch yourself!" Andrei growled. "That's my future wife you're talking about!""Oh, for fuck's sake! After everything we've just said, you can't still be thinking about going through with this marriage. Your father will not allow it!""After the shit he pulled with Veronika, I'm done with my father. Holly and I will still get married as planned!""So what exactly did Papa Ivanov do?" asked Ivan, picking up his cutlery again."What didn't he do?" said Andrei, linking his hands behind his head. Without further prompting from his lieutenants, he

A mournful sigh slipped through Holly's lips as she pushed the laptop away and picked up her now-cold coffee. As much as she wanted to look away, her eyes seemed to have a mind of their own. They remained glued to a Polaroid photo of Isabella taken in one of the studios at the Institute while she was in croisé devant, a pose in which the dancer stands facing a corner at an angle to the audience.Knowing what Holly knew now about the circumstances leading up to Isabella's tragic end, it wasn't hard to figure out who had taken the photo. Her own socials were littered with such images, and she always joked that if dancing didn't work out for Cooper, he could always go into photography. Of course, he didn't have the technical know-how. But there was something special about how he captured his subjects...He had a way of making them appear larger than life, like they were the centre of the universe and everything around them existed purely for them. Looking at the photos, at the fragments