Love Thy Enemy (Red Stone Security #13)
Katie Reus
Dedication
For my wonderful sister.
Prologue
Six years ago
“Mom!” Dominique called out as she shut the front door of the crappy two-bedroom duplex they lived in behind her. She hated this place, hated that they’d had to move here after her dad’s gambling debts had taken everything from them. Thanks to nonexistent insulation, she was pretty sure their new neighbors were dealing drugs too.
Everything was surprisingly quiet now, but it was noon. She figured the jerks next door were probably sleeping off a bender.
Her mom hadn’t been answering any of Dominique’s texts, though. And that wasn’t like her. Not to mention her mom had missed work yesterday, according to the owner of the restaurant she waited tables at. When he hadn’t been able to get a hold of her mom, he’d called Dominique, worried. The older man had taken both of them under his wing and had been trying to find them a better place to live.
Since she’d just graduated high school yesterday Dominique had celebrated by staying over at her best friend’s house last night instead of coming home. The thought of coming back here had been too depressing and her mom had been okay with it. She’d said she was headed to work and that Dominique should have fun. For the first time in a long time she’d actually seemed happy.
They’d even talked about moving out of this place soon. Dominique had been saving from her part-time afterschool job and her mom had picked up extra shifts at work so they finally had enough to find somewhere safer.
“Mom!” she called again as she reached the living room. An empty bottle of cheap red wine was on the coffee table along with an empty bottle of pills. Xanax.
Panic punched through her as she raced down the hallway to her mom’s room. Her mom had struggled with depression over the last six months. Understandably.
But Dominique had thought things were different now. Her mom had seemed so freaking happy yesterday… She stopped in her tracks outside her mom’s open bathroom door.
The water in the tub was…dark. Red. Her mom’s head was laid back against the wall, her eyes closed, her face unnaturally gray and one arm draped over the side of the tub. Dried crimson streaks trickled down the outside of the tub and stained the square black and white tiles.
Bile rose in her throat as terror streaked through her. She tried to force her legs to move, but couldn’t cross the threshold into the bathroom.
“Mom?” The word just slipped out even though she knew her mom couldn’t hear her.
She wasn’t stupid. She knew her mom was dead. She wasn’t breathing and that blood was from slit wrists. Stepping back, Dominique lost it, all the contents of her breakfast coming back up and onto the floor until she was on her hands and knees, sobbing and dry heaving.
When she eventually found the energy she crawled away from the doorway opening and collapsed back against the wall. With trembling fingers she managed to dial her older cousin Quinn. He’d been a cop and now worked for some big deal security company. She wanted him to help, not some random strangers, and she knew he’d call the police.
Her mom had cut that side of the family out of their lives because she’d been ashamed of how ‘far we’ve fallen,’ as she’d put it. It was stupid and Dominique didn’t care about any of that right now. She needed help. She needed family.
She needed her mom not to be dead.
When Quinn answered the phone she lost it and started sobbing again.
She’d thought her dad dying was the worst thing that could have happened, but this was way worse. Her mom had chosen to take her own life, leaving Dominique all alone in the world.
Chapter 1
Viktor Ivanov could barely hear what his acquaintance was saying as he stared at the tall blonde beauty he’d seen talking to various employees of Red Stone Security. She had a body made for pleasure and right now all he could envision was burying his face between her thighs, listening to the sounds she made as he made her come over and over.
He’d never had such a visceral reaction to anyone before—and he’d been with his share of beautiful women. Lately not so much, as even sex had started to become more of the same. That was what happened, he supposed, since he only employed escorts for sex anyway.
He managed to get in a few grunts of acknowledgement until Abram, his business partner/half-brother, subtly stepped on his foot.
Blinking, he turned back to Shane Hollis—the man who’d been bothering him the last ten minutes with inane conversation about an investment opportunity. The truth was, he didn’t give a shit what this guy said. He wasn’t going to do business with Hollis. He’d already bought some of the man’s restaurants a year ago because Hollis couldn’t manage his money. The trust-fund baby liked drugs too much, something Hollis didn’t think Viktor knew.
Tonight Viktor had simply been trying to be civil because that’s what normal people did. They behaved in certain ways because it was socially acceptable.
He hated it the majority of the time but he was a businessman. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t stand most people. He could put on an act. Most of the time anyway.
Tonight he couldn’t stop staring at the curvy woman with legs that seemed to go on for miles. He wondered if she worked for Red Stone. Or maybe she was just friendly with the wives of the brothers who ran the company because he’d seen her talking to Elizabeth Martinez Caldwell a lot. Lizzy, as her friends called her, came from a very wealthy, influential family and she’d married one of the Caldwell brothers a couple years ago. They’d just had a kid not long ago too, something he remembered seeing in his files—because he kept files on anyone in the city who was important.