Didn't You Promise (A Bad for You Novel) Read Online Free Page A

Even if our goals were different, our path had been the same. A life in the shadows. But Avner’s destination drew him deeper into murkiness than mine. Black market. Darknet. He’d hacked every system that supposedly couldn’t be hacked.
    He’d embraced what I never could. I never thrived on this. Never sought the dark. Never wanted to fuck with something just because it could be fucked. I simply sensed disaster waiting. Made sure when it arrived I’d be more than ready—I’d greet it with an iron fist.
    “Did you do everything I asked?”
    His jaw set. “Of course I did.”
    “I needed to ask—” I held his gaze tighter than I’d held his shoulder “—because I need you to look at me now, and tell me that if the time comes you’ll do what has to be done.”
    He took a breath, then his jaw pulsed.
    There were few people close to me I didn’t fully own. Avner might have been my only true friend. The only man with whom I’d argue. We’d argued about this. He’d refused my requests. Avner had the balls for that. Perhaps that’s what made him so crucial.
    “Yeah—I’ll do it.”
    My spine relaxed a fraction.
    “I still say there are too many things that could go wrong, Haithem.”
    My gaze drifted to the door once more.
    Yes , there were.
    Far too many things that could go wrong with this plan. The one contingency I’d never repeated to Angelina. One that could only work—could only protect her if she never suspected. It’d destroy her, but if we ever found ourselves on that road, that terrible one-way road, we’d already be beyond salvation.
    Nothing, no part of all the good I could only hope would vindicate our actions, trumped her.
    She had to survive me.
    If everything went to hell, I could live in hell, I could bear the flames, as long as she was all right. She’d never forgive me if I had to go through with this. I’d told too many lies already. Even this planning broke the honesty keeping us together after everything I’d done.
    But better to be with and not need, then need and be without.
    So I had to plan for the worst.
    “Do you have that other thing I asked for?”
    “Right here.” Avner patted his breast pocket.
    The door opened, and Angelina stepped through. It took work to keep the air in my lungs. She’d never been sexier. Not because she appeared different—I’d love nothing more than to strip that disguise away—it was the way she looked at me.
    Angelina looked at me the way a woman does who knew and owned her own self.
    She knew and owned me too.
    Yet, I couldn’t help the questions clenching my guts—what had it cost to get us here? How much of her innocence had been lost? And how much more was yet to be broken.
    Angelina
    I’d taken the opportunity after relieving myself to remove the wig and scratch my damp scalp until it stung. Still the blasted thing left me feeling as though ants had made their nest between the cap and my skull.
    Haithem’s clipped words reached me in the doorway.
    I froze. Needed a moment to process the sound of him and the look of him all at once. Too much . He was too much for the eyes and the ears and the senses. Even from where I stood across the room, the sound of his voice triggered the memory of his scent. The words he’d whisper when we lay in bed, never in English for me to understand. I could only believe they were more tender and more vulnerable than saying I love you .
    Because he was generous with those three words.
    He held a hand out to me. I walked to him and placed my fingers in his. The touch anchored me, slowed the ever present rushing in my head that’d plagued me ever since we stepped foot off the yacht.
    He fixed his gaze on me. “Avner has arranged a special gift for you.”
    “A gift?” I glanced between them.
    Avner nodded, and pulled a box from his jacket pocket. “From Haithem.”
    He opened the box, and presented what lay inside.
    A gold watch.
    Thick gold link band, big round face. Beautiful, but bold. Like