The Bastard's Bargain Read online

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2018 by Katee Hird

  Excerpt from The Last King copyright © 2018 by Katee Hird

  Cover design by Elizabeth Turner. Cover photography by Claudio Marinesco. Cover copyright © 2018 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  Hachette Book Group supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  Forever

  Hachette Book Group

  1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104

  forever-romance.com

  twitter.com/foreverromance

  First Edition: February 2018

  Forever is an imprint of Grand Central Publishing. The Forever name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.

  The Hachette Speakers Bureau provides a wide range of authors for speaking events. To find out more, go to www.hachettespeakersbureau.com or call (866) 376-6591.

  ISBN: 978-1-5387-2804-8 (ebook)

  E3-20171128-DANF

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  A Preview of "The Last King"

  About the Author

  Acclaim for the O'Malleys Series

  Also by Katee Robert

  Newsletters

  To every single person who asked me if Dmitri Romanov will get his own book.

  He does. Right here. Right now.

  Because you loved him as much as I do.

  Acknowledgments

  Writing a book isn’t done in a vacuum, and writing and publishing a series takes a small army of people to do so successfully. I’ve been very, very fortunate in working with an amazing team who has loved and supported and cheered on the O’Malleys from the very first moment that Callie appeared on the first page of The Marriage Contract.

  None of it would have mattered without the support of my readers. It was your love and excitement that made this book, specifically, possible, and I cannot thank you enough. I never planned on Dmitri Romanov turning into such a force to be reckoned with, and I certainly never saw him and Keira coming. Thank you for your trust that I would bring our bad guy full circle and ensure that he actually deserved a happily ever after.

  This series wouldn’t be half as good without my amazing editor Leah Hultenschmidt cheering me on and pushing me to make these books even better than I could have dreamed. Thank you for getting my vision, even when I had trouble executing it. This series will always be so incredibly special to me because you trusted me to run with it, and reeled me back in when I ran a wee bit too far.

  Thank you to the team at Forever. Your support from amazing covers all the way to getting these books into readers’ hands has been wonderful. I appreciate you! Big thanks to Danielle Barclay at Barclay Publicity for helping push this series from day one. You are a rock star!

  Hugs and many thanks to Piper J. Drake for always being there to help me keep my eye on the prize when reality threatened to kick me in the teeth. You are an amazing friend, and I am so thankful we found each other at RWA nationals that year for breakfast.

  Special thanks to my reader group, the Rabble. I hope Dmitri was worth the wait! Being able to share bits of him and Keira with you early made all the difference in the world for me. Thank you for loving him just as much as I did long before you were able to read his story in full.

  As always, I don’t know if I’d survive the process of getting a book out into the world without the love and support of my husband and family. Tim, Terri, Hilary, Kristen, John, and all the various kids. We might not be a family by blood, but you are the family I choose and I love you more than anything.

  Chapter One

  Keira O’Malley stared at the empty bottle of vodka next to her bed. She had a second one stashed in her closet, but the effort to climb off her mattress and retrieve it was beyond her. Lethargy sapped what little strength she had, though she couldn’t blame that on the alcohol any more than she could blame it on the weed. No, it was all her. She glanced at the digital clock painting red patterns across the clear bottle. Almost four in the morning—there would be no sleep tonight. Again.

  She didn’t sleep much these days—and not at all without some kind of liquid help—but this was worse than normal. Tonight, while she lay here with alcohol buzzing through her system and watched the smoke curl above her face with each exhale, she waited for news.

  She hated that when shit hit the fan, her older siblings sent her to her room while they dealt with the crisis. She was twenty-one, and they treated her like a child.

  Or a bomb about to go off.

  She inhaled again, smoking her joint slowly, wishing the burning in her lungs could ease her racing thoughts. No one had come to update her since the whole house was put on lockdown. Right now, one of her brothers could be dead, bleeding out in the street, and Keira would be the last to know.

  Like Devlin.

  Pain slashed through her despite the barrier of numbness she’d carefully cultivated with weed and alcohol. One brother dead because of their family’s “business” dealings, another in immediate danger, and nothing she could do but lie here and feel sorry for herself.

  A buzzing vibrated against her hip, and her heartbeat picked up even as her stomach dropped when she realized it wasn’t her normal cell. Not news, then. It was the burner phone Dmitri Romanov had given her, the one he used to contact her directly without leaving a trace for her family to find.

  Her thumb hovered over the call reject button. She needed to be here for when news came in…but Dmitri often surprised her by knowing more than he should. Maybe he had news for her.

  And maybe pigs will fly. You want to answer the call because you want to talk to him. It has nothing to do with noble motivations.

  The phone buzzed again, and she answered before she could talk herself out of it. “Do you even know what time it is?”

  “Are you still wearing my ring?” Dmitri’s voice rasped through the line, his Russian accent making her stomach do
a slow somersault.

  She looked down at the giant diamond winking in the low light. Two weeks ago, he’d cornered her in a bathroom and slipped it on her finger. It wasn’t the proposal she’d dreamed of when she was a little girl, but six-year-old Keira O’Malley never would have imagined a man like Dmitri. There was nothing innocent about him, nothing noble or even a little bit good. He was the villain of this story. The man who would take down her family—unless she became his bride.

  And yet, Keira hadn’t taken the ring off, though she couldn’t begin to explain the impulse that had kept the jewelry in place. Liar. That ring is nothing more than you deserve, and not because it’s worth a small fortune. It’s a promise that you’ll do what it takes when the time comes…and the time is now.

  There was only one reason Dmitri was calling her at four in the morning, while her oldest brother was headed to a dangerous meeting in New York and the rest of the family was otherwise occupied, facing down a threat coming from a different direction. Clever Russian. He’s making his play.

  She swallowed hard. “Yes.”

  A pause, as if she’d surprised him with her honesty. Keira sat up and took another hit of her joint. She needed all the bolstering she could get for what would come next.

  When Dmitri spoke again, his tone was cool and distant. “Your brother intends to break his word to me and cancel our engagement.”

  She froze. “What?” Surely she’d just heard him wrong. Aiden was too smart to risk the safety of their family and the people who depended on them for her. She was expendable. The youngest of seven—six, now—siblings, it only made sense to sell her to Dmitri. They’d fought too hard to prevent a war to start one now. Her family had dealt him three political blows in as many years. If the O’Malleys reneged on this, Dmitri would see every single one of them taken out. She had no doubt about it.

  “You can stop it, Keira. Come with me now and I’ll forget that he was going to break his word.” If the devil existed, he had a Russian accent and used that coaxing tone when offering his bargains. Come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly. I’ll eat you whole, but you’ll like it.

  She suspected it was even the truth.

  She was safe in her room. He wouldn’t bash in, shoot everyone, and take her. It wasn’t Dmitri’s style, no matter what anyone thought of him. But if she didn’t go with him now, the O’Malleys and Romanovs would go to war. Nothing would be able to prevent it.

  Nothing but her.

  Have to play this right. “If I come with you now”—her voice hitched, but she pushed on—“promise me there will be peace. Give me your word.”

  He barely hesitated. “I give my word that I will do nothing further to antagonize your brother and the situation.”

  She’d been around too many power plays in her life not to know hedging when she heard it. “But if he comes after me, you’ll finish what he started. No. I’m not signing Aiden’s death warrant.”

  He cursed in Russian. “I will do everything in my power to broker peace if you come with me right this moment. The clock is ticking, Keira.”

  He’d keep his word. Dmitri might be borderline evil with a dose of psychopath, but he had his own code of honor. That promise was as good as she was going to get. If she said no now, she might very well be sentencing her family to war. Maybe they could win, but not without casualties. I can’t bury another sibling. “Give me two minutes.”

  “Be quick.”

  Keira hung up and grabbed a bag. She kept an overnight one packed for emergencies. She paused and looked around her room. There wasn’t a single damn thing that she couldn’t live without. The jewelry her mother gave her hadn’t been touched in well over two years. Her books lay unread. She finally snatched a picture of her and her siblings from the dresser and shoved it into the pack, followed by her bag of perfectly rolled joints and two bottles of vodka. Dmitri was Russian—he no doubt owned stock in vodka—but she’d rather have her own stash close at hand.

  And then there was nothing else holding her to this place. She shoved the window open and climbed out. It was a route she’d taken more times than she could count, no matter how often her brother threatened to install bars to hold her in. She swung out of the window and climbed down the tree to the ground.

  A bitter wind kicked her hair into her face and made her wish she’d thought to bring a sweatshirt, but it was too late to worry about it now. Keira shrugged her bag over her shoulder and started down the street toward the black town car and the man who stood next to it as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

  As if he wasn’t in the very heart of enemy territory, stealing her out from under her family’s nose.

  Dmitri Romanov was striking in the way of fallen angels, his face a little too rough for perfection, his mouth a little too calculating and made for spilling lies, his gray eyes a little too icy to be anything other than exactly what he was—a cold-blooded killer who manipulated people to suit his purposes.

  Against her better judgment, she picked up her pace, drawn to him despite everything that had happened between them—and everything that hadn’t.

  “Stop.”

  Dmitri moved. One second he was several feet away, and the next he pulled Keira to him—behind him. She blinked and peered around his shoulder to find her middle brother standing on the sidewalk, a gun in his hand.

  A gun pointed at Dmitri.

  “Put the gun down, Cillian.” Dmitri spoke softly, his hands out to his sides.

  Shielding me.

  More like protecting his investment.

  “I don’t care if you helped Aiden and Charlie, you are not taking my sister anywhere.”

  Keira bit down angry words. Right now, the only thing that mattered was defusing the situation. Her brother wanted to protect her—she got that—but he was putting everyone they cared about in danger with this bullshit. She opened her mouth, but Dmitri spoke before she had a chance.

  “You owe me a favor, Cillian O’Malley.”

  “The fuck I do.”

  “Break your word and our deal is null and void.”

  Oh God. If Cillian did that, it would be even worse than shooting Dmitri right then and there. Keira stepped around Dmitri and put her hand on his chest. “Cillian, please. Just let me go. I’m choosing this. I’ll be okay. I promise.” Soft and easy. Lie with your words and tone and body.

  Cillian relaxed. The gun inched lower, finally aiming safely at the concrete at her brother’s feet. “Aiden is going to come after you, Keira. You know that.”

  He couldn’t come after her, because if he did, Dmitri would have the ammunition he needed to attack. She leaned forward, her voice low and fierce. “He promised to respect my choice.” She had to get her message across or this would all be for nothing.

  She turned and walked away, now gripping Dmitri’s shirt to tow him after her. If she didn’t, the boys were liable to whip out their cocks just to see whose was biggest. Better to remove Dmitri from the temptation of poking at her brother—something he had a long history of doing, given that Cillian was living with Dmitri’s half sister. Keira held her breath the entire time, waiting for Cillian to push the subject, waiting for Dmitri to made a snide comment. But, miracle of miracles, both men stayed silent.

  It wasn’t until they were in the backseat that Keira relaxed enough to slouch against the leather and close her eyes. We made it. I fulfilled my end of the bargain and no one got killed…yet. “How long until we get to your place?” The sooner they got out of Boston—and O’Malley territory—the better it would be for everyone. Even Aiden would think twice about coming to New York where Dmitri had home-court advantage.

  “We’re not going to my place.”

  Goddamn it, she would strangle him herself if this was yet another game. What am I talking about? Of course it’s all a game. Game playing is what Dmitri does best. She took a breath, and then another, striving to keep her reaction under control. Finally, when she was sure she could pull off the belligerent tone witho
ut the slightest hint of fear, she opened one eye. “Then where are we going?”

  “A chapel.”

  * * *

  Dmitri Romanov didn’t permit himself to breathe a sigh of relief. This was only the first step in a path that could potentially span years. It didn’t matter. Keira was here—was his. He had time.

  He watched her look around the inside of the town car, cataloging everything with those witchy hazel eyes of hers. The faint scent of pot filled the car, giving evidence to what she’d been up to when he called. The woman was a mess, but he’d known that from the moment he met her. Dmitri didn’t do projects. He preferred to be the one holding all the cards—it allowed him to anticipate how the people around him would act in any given situation.

  He’d never been able to anticipate Keira. Not from the moment she picked his pocket and walked away from him as if she didn’t give a fuck about the danger he posed to her.

  Likely because she has a goddamn death wish.

  He’d deal with that, just like he’d deal with the rest of Keira’s issues. In time.

  Right that moment, time was the one thing they didn’t have. Keira’s oldest brother would be returning to Boston within hours, and Dmitri fully intended to marry her before Aiden realized she was gone. It was significantly more difficult to oust a wife than it was a fiancée.

  He had Keira now. He wasn’t going to let anyone take her.

  She kicked her feet out, propping her chunky black boots on the seat. The long line of her bare legs drew his gaze up to her tiny sleep shorts. They were barely more than underwear, hugging her hips and ass. Her shirt wasn’t much better, for all that it was long-sleeved. It revealed a slice of pale stomach and was fitted enough that he had absolutely no doubts about the fact that Keira wore no bra. Her small breasts pressed against the fabric, and she shivered beneath the weight of his gaze.

  Get control of yourself. He leaned forward and nudged her boots back to the floorboard. Taking Keira was part of the plan—fucking her in the backseat was not. “There’s no need for an adolescent tantrum.”

  She laughed, the sound rough and pain filled. “God, would you listen to yourself? You just showed up at my window to lure me into the night—to a chapel—and now you’re bitching about my shoes on the seats? Russian, you have your priorities seriously out of order.” She flicked her long hair off her shoulder. She’d dyed it a harsh blond that seemed designed to highlight how unhealthily skinny she’d become in the last year.