Chapter 39
Chapter
Thirty-Nine
GORAN
The officers didn’t question me further. A few minutes after Dimitri left, two patrolmen arrived and escorted me outside. They put me in the back of a basic sedan and drove away.
No cuffs. No explanation.
When the vehicle entered the showgrounds, my heart raced. The driver stopped near Kaylani’s trailer. The officer in the passenger seat handed me a plastic bag with my phone, wallet, and gun inside.
“Don’t ever come back to Las Vegas. Or next time, you won’t be so lucky.”
I snatched the bag and didn’t wait to be told to exit. I jumped out, sprinted for the trailer, yanked the door open, and leaped inside.
Kaylani spun around, arms full of clothes that she held to her chest like a shield.
Her small suitcase sat open, half-packed.
She dropped the clothes, relief filling her eyes.
She reminded me of a caged animal. Her hair tumbled loose and wild around her shoulders, her jaw was tight, and her hands shook before she clenched them into fists.
“Jesus, Goran, you scared me.”
I crossed the short distance between us, and we collided in a hug that was desperate.
Kaylani took a deep breath and then lifted her eyes to mine.
“You knew this would happen,” she said with a hint of betrayal in her tone.
“I knew your father put out the warrant, but I didn’t know officers were coming. Or that he knew where we were.”
Her laugh was sharp, harsh.
“Why didn’t you warn me?”
The trailer suddenly felt too small for both of us. I’d known she would be upset when I kept the secret, even for a day. But I never envisioned her finding out like this.
“Lani, I couldn’t. I’d just found out, and there was no way I was ruining this show for you. You would’ve been distracted, and you deserved to win without all the worry.”
Her eyes narrowed into thin slits, and she crossed her arms over her chest, waiting me out.
“Do you think I wanted this?”
“I think you made a decision without me. I hate being kept in the dark.”
“I was going to tell you as soon as Atlas was back in his stall.”
Her eyes blazed.
“This wasn’t your burden to bear alone. God, Goran.”
She stepped back, but the way she avoided my eyes made me search her face. She was hiding something.
“What did he say to you?”
“Who?”
“Don’t do that. I know Dimitri was at the jail. What did he say to you?”
She turned and walked away. My heart rate spiked with fear as I waited for her answer.
“He was going to make sure you rotted in prison. I couldn’t let that happen,” Kaylani whispered, still not meeting my eyes.
Terror crept under my skin, settling deep in my chest.
“You don’t get to decide what I’m willing to suffer,” I shot back.
Kaylani whipped around, hands balled into fists.
“I was protecting you.”
“And I was protecting you by not telling you. Lani—” She froze. The unfinished words hung between us. “What did he make you promise,” I asked, softer this time.
Unshed tears shimmered in her beautiful eyes.
“You don’t understand,” she pleaded, shaking her head.
“Then explain it to me.”
She dragged a hand through her hair. The movement was frantic, nervous, and deep down, I knew. I had seen her handle thousand-pound horses with steadier hands.
“Lani, don’t shut me out. What did he make you promise?”
Her shoulders went rigid.
“Nothing I can’t handle.”
“That’s not an answer.”
Sadness morphed into anger. I could see she was trying to hold herself together, but the cracks were already forming.
“You can’t stand in the line of fire for me. Not with this.”
“And you don’t get to sacrifice yourself without talking to me. You’re my wife. We’re a team now. You made it that way when you put this ring on my finger.” I held up my hand, the band catching the light. “My job is to protect you, not the other way around.”
“It’s my life.”
“It’s our life.”
Silence crashed between us as we stared each other down.
Her lower lip trembled. We were both damned by the same cause.
Dimitri knew it when he walked into that room. He knew that I would do anything to protect Kaylani, and she would do the same for me. And we would sacrifice our souls to do it.
It was our greatest strength, and he’d turned it into a weakness.
“Goran, I know you would’ve endured whatever he threw at you. But he was going to make your life hell. And in hurting you…he would’ve crushed me. We would’ve been trapped in pain for as long as he wanted.” Her voice faltered. “I couldn’t let that happen. He offered a solution.”
My stomach dropped.
“What solution?”
She remained quiet, pacing three steps one way, then three back.
“Lani…” A knot formed in my throat. “If this is about marrying someone else—”
“It is,” she cut in, and those two words landed like a punch to my gut.
“No. I won’t allow it.” I stepped toward her.
“It’s not that simple.”
“It is that simple.” I grabbed her by the shoulders, forcing her to look at me. “You don’t get to trade yourself. That’s what he has always wanted. He doesn’t get to use me to get to you. I will go back to the jail right now.”
“Goran, you don’t know what he’s capable of. I’m trying to save you. Save us.”
“I don’t need saving,” I bit out, rougher than I intended. “Lani, I know exactly what he is capable of, and I will withstand whatever torture he chooses before letting you cage your soul for me.”
“If he hurt you…killed you…I couldn’t live with that. I had to take the deal.”
I moved closer until there was no space between us.
“I would rather have my throat slit than watch you walk down an aisle with another man for me,” I whispered. “Don’t you understand that? I love you, Lani. You’re mine.”
Her breath hitched.
“Don’t say that.”
“Why? It’s the truth.”
“You don’t know that. I did this to us. I never should’ve tricked you into marriage”
“Stop it. I would always choose you Lani.”
“No you wouldn’t have. I forced you and now we are both paying the price,” she whispered.
“No. I say that always. I don’t care how we got here, I love you. I always will.” I cupped her cheeks.
She shoved weakly at my chest, but I wasn’t going anywhere.
“You don’t get to be noble about this,” she said, as the first tear slid down her face.
“And you don’t get to martyr yourself. Especially not for me.”
“With or without your consent,” she said, voice shaking. “I will do what is needed to keep you out of prison.”
It was the same tone she had used the night she stole Atlas.
My fingers brushed the side of her neck.
“Don’t…” Her pulse beat fast beneath my fingertips. “Don’t take this choice away from me,” I pleaded.
Her eyes searched mine.
“If you love me,” she whispered.
I leaned down until my forehead nearly touched hers.
“Don’t,” I warned, cutting her off.
“If you love me,” she repeated, “you’ll let me fix this. When I married you, I thought I was being smart, devious, but I was wrong. I was a fool. All I did was doom us both.” Her voice cracked. “I need to be the one who sets it right.”
“There is no version of this where I let you belong to someone else,” I growled, dangerously. The thought alone filled my head with violent images. Faces I hadn’t seen yet, already painted in blood.
“You don’t own me or my choices, Goran.”
“No,” I agreed. “But I refuse to lose you because your father thinks he can use me as a pawn.”
The air between us hummed with desperation.
She looked like she was being torn in half, and for the first time since I walked in, I realized this wasn’t just fear.
There was no wiggle room in her decision.
No space to fight.
She wasn’t panicking.
This was goodbye.
And that terrified me more than prison ever could.