Chapter 1 - The Shadow at Maverick’s
The bar smelled of bourbon, citrus peel, and rain-soaked wool. Amber light gleamed over polished bottles, softening everyone except Trevor, who stood beneath it in a navy suit with one hand resting on Harper Lane’s waist. My former boyfriend. My former best friend. Together.
Eight months after Trevor Ashford shattered my life, walking into Maverick’s and finding him celebrating felt like stepping onto a landmine. Harper saw me first. Her champagne glass paused halfway to her mouth, and something bright and cruel awakened in her face. She whispered to Trevor, who turned wearing the patient smile he used whenever he wanted me to feel unreasonable.
“Cammy,” he said. “I didn’t know you came to places like this.”
My fingernails cut into my palm. Trevor had cheated with Harper after five years of promising me a future. Somehow, he still believed my humiliation belonged to him.
“I’m meeting someone,” I said.
Harper glanced behind me. “Who?”
I should have left. Instead, I looked toward the bar and saw the largest man in the room sitting alone. He wore a black shirt with the sleeves rolled to his forearms. A pale scar crossed one eyebrow, and his profile had the severe stillness of something carved from winter. Everyone left an invisible circle around him.
I crossed the room before fear could catch me.
“Excuse me,” I said.
He turned. His eyes were gray—not soft gray, but the color of steel beneath ice. They moved over my face, my trembling hands, and finally the table where Trevor watched us.
“Yes?”
His voice carried a low, gravelly weight and the quiet authority of a man who had never needed to repeat himself.
“I need you to kiss me.”
One eyebrow lifted. “Do you?”
“Please.”
He studied Trevor again. Understanding entered his eyes, followed by something darker. “Is this what you want,” he asked, “or what you think will hurt him?”
“Both.”
He stood. I was five feet four in heels. He towered over me, broad enough to block the room from view. Yet when his fingers touched my chin, they were unexpectedly gentle.
“You may change your mind,” he murmured.
“I won’t.”
His mouth covered mine. It was not the polite kiss I had expected. His hand settled at my waist, drawing me against him as though he had been waiting for me. Heat swept through my body, violent enough to erase Trevor, Harper, and every wasted year between them.
When the stranger lifted his head, my fingers were twisted in his shirt.
Trevor was already approaching.
“What the hell are you doing, Camilla?”
The stranger shifted, placing himself between us. “Walk away,” he said.
Trevor laughed, but the sound cracked. “This has nothing to do with you.”
“It does now.”
Harper hurried after him. “Camilla, are you seriously using some random thug to make Trevor jealous?”
The stranger’s expression did not change. “You will speak to her with respect.”
“And who are you?” Trevor demanded.
The room seemed to hold its breath. The stranger reached into his pocket, placed a heavy card on the bar, and pushed it toward Trevor. Trevor read the name. Every drop of color vanished from his face.
May you like
The stranger’s arm closed around my waist. “My name is Adrian Markov,” he said. “And the woman you betrayed is under my protection now.”
Trevor stared at him, suddenly sober. Then Adrian lowered his mouth to my ear. “You chose a dangerous man to kiss, malaya,” he whispered. “And someone has already called my enemies.”
