The Agreement (Darkest Lies Trilogy Book 1) by Bethany-Kris (motivational books for men .TXT) 📕

wasn’t self-aware. There was a method to his madness, though. He wanted the asshole to know he would continue doing exactly what he wanted, whenever he wanted.

It was a good lesson to learn.

Just when he was about to step outside the bathroom, he heard Leonid’s voice echoing in the corridor. He wouldn’t have stayed inside if he hadn’t heard the tone of Leonid’s voice—a shaky aggression that made Roman pause just long enough to actually hear what was being said.

“The day of the wedding. That is when you need to make it happen.” Leonid’s obvious growing frustration spilled out with impatient words for the person on the other end of the line. “No, of course it’s not too soon, Katina. For fuck’s sake—I’m starting to think you don’t have it in you to see this through.”

Through the crack in the door, Roman watched Leonid pace up and down the corridor. He’d never been the type to eavesdrop. That shit only led a man into trouble, and the truth was, Roman wasn’t all that interested in other people’s affairs.

This time, though, something stopped him from pulling away from the conversation in the corridor. He wanted to listen. Something about Leonid’s voice compelled him to remain there, peering through the small crack in the opened door, even though he had no idea what was being discussed.

“August thirty-first. Do you get me? Maxim has to die by then or you’re not getting what you want, Katina,” Leonid added, the sharpness in his words feeling like the edge of a blade raking across Roman’s skin.

And shit ...

He wasn’t even the person Leonid was directing his orders to in the first damn place.

Roman had to look away, even though that did nothing to erase the words that had already infiltrated his mind and wouldn’t leave. Leonid, one of Maxim’s most trusted men, was planning his boss’s assassination. Or that was certainly how it sounded to him.

Despite the fact he was now privy to a plot against the boss, Roman wasn’t truly shocked at the news that there was one to begin with. It was a lesson his father had given him long ago. He’d made Roman promise not to trust anybody.

Literally nobody.

Roman was fourteen at the time when a plot was hatched to execute Demyan. Initiated by a man Demyan considered to be a friend, the plan was seen through until almost the end. Until it was almost too late.

By someone they trusted.

His father had come out of it alive and well, of course. At the same time, he had armed himself with a life lesson which he imparted to his son.

As the boss of a large organization, Demyan expected to face criticism and disrespect from the outside, typically, even from friends and people he trusted, at times. A boss always had to remind people why he sat where he did compared to everyone else. Finding out a friend was plotting against you, on the other hand, was a whole other matter.

Roman would never forget the look on his father’s face when he found out what was happening—rage, and fear.

Real, true fear.

Because they were never safe. No man in this life was, no matter how hard they tried to make it so. Reality was not as kind when it came back around to remind a man where he actually stood.

On shaky ground.

Roman tried to think back on that time as a young man, and how it all unfolded in the streets between the men when the truth started to leak out. It hadn’t gone over well, really. It never did.

All the while, Leonid continued mumbling into the phone outside, but his body language hadn’t changed. He still spoke to the woman he called Katina, threatening her without even taking a breath in between.

Roman’s mind raced to catch up even though it might have been a smarter choice to turn away and pretend he hadn’t heard a thing. Except ... he knew how significant this information was—even if he wasn’t personally involved in the ploy to execute the pakhan of a bratva.

It could potentially start a war. If Maxim was assassinated tomorrow, the rest of Chicago would be running around like a flock of headless chickens. Men with too much control, entirely out of control. All vying to come out on top of an already bad situation, and probably willing to make it worse if that meant a better seat for them in the end.

It was just how this shit worked.

Something else made him pause, too. Roman didn’t know where his own loyalties rested here. And he was pretty sure that simply overhearing what he assumed to be a plot against the boss wasn’t enough to actually bring to the man and say it was fact—especially not against a man as high in the organization as Leonid.

What proof could Roman show for that? He had nothing to go on but the edges of an overheard conversation. And wasn’t there a warning somewhere for messengers delivering bad news?

Yeah.

Nothing about this was good.

The information he now had was dangerous, and he was all too aware that he had a very short time in which to decide whether to tell it to someone, or not.

Outside, Leonid ended the call and through the crack, Roman waited as the man walked away. Until he was altogether out of sight.

He remained in the bathroom, not moving an inch until the echo of footsteps finally came to a stop ... or was too far away for him to still hear. Feeling too dazed to step out, Roman scrubbed a hand down his face, and tried to shake off the heavy questions banging around in his mind, and the weight now pressing down on his shoulders.

A sense of ... responsibility.

He hated that.

A part of him wished he hadn’t lingered.

Hindsight was always twenty-twenty.

THIRTEEN

Karine tried to admire the sight of her reflection staring back, but she couldn’t even do that considering the reason why she was even standing there looking like she did in