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I’m not surprised. “He deserved to die. But he doesn’t even deserve your remembrance.”
She burrows in deeper. Her eyes shine with unshed tears, her breathing ragged.
“I don’t want anything to do with any Bratva.” She closes her eyes. “Like Sylvia said,” she whispers.
I take a lock of her hair between my fingers and twist it gently. Thinking.
“Remove her from any association with the Bratva,” I say. I haven’t forgotten it.
“For both of us,” she affirms. Even now, she’s thinking of me.
What did I do to deserve this woman? I don’t know, but I will spend every last day of my life giving thanks for this gift.
I frame her face with my hands and lift her eyes to mine. “I can’t walk away,” I tell her. “But I love you, Olena. You are still the angel that came to me, even now. You minister to me now as you did then.”
Her voice tremulous, her eyes on mine, she nods. “And I love you, Maksym.” Then she gives me a rakish grin. “Though I shouldn’t. You are one of the bad guys.”
I laugh, and it feels so damn good to let things go like this.
I have no idea what tomorrow brings. But somehow, some way, I’ve managed a second chance.
With an angel by my side.Chapter 20Olena
Our movements are hurried and hushed when we arrive at the compound. Doctor Rothsky, the doctor I’ve seen a few times now, meets us and looks over our injuries. I’m shaken, and my cheek is bruised, but it’s Maksym I’m really worried about. The doctor agrees that it was only a superficial wound, treats him, then leaves us. This all takes place downstairs.
“We aren’t safe here anymore,” I tell Maksym.
“I agree,” he says, tucking me to his side. We sit in the quiet of the library, and within a few minutes, both the man that joined Maksym in taking on The Thieves and Demyan have arrived.
“All well?” Maksym asks.
Demyan’s face is drawn and haggard.
“Yes,” he says. “That chapter has ended.”
The traitor in their midst. They have dealt with him, in whatever capacity that means. I shudder, and Maksym draws me closer.
The bald man they call Nicolai looks soberly at me. “You’ll need to go, Maksym,” he says. “She isn’t safe here anymore.”
With my father dead, those who remain loyal to my father could exact vengeance.
“I know,” Maksym says, and there’s a somber tone to their conversation. It takes me a moment before I realize that going isn’t temporary.
“You can go to our brothers in Atlanta,” Nicolai says, and for some reason his eyes come to me. “You know our brothers there.”
I look at him in confusion. “I do?”
“Yeah,” he says, looking away, as if he doesn’t want to say what he needs to.
“Tell her,” Maksym says, tugging me to him and tucking me against his chest.
My heartbeat quickens. What is it? I’m not sure how much more I can take tonight.
“Your mother,” Nicolai says, then his eyes come to mine. “She was my mother as well. We had different fathers, though.”
My skin feels prickly and too tight. I shake my head, unable to comprehend what he’s telling me. He continues and I listen, while Maksym’s hand holding mine tightens. “She left to get away from your father. She was in love with one of Yuri’s rivals—one of our brothers. She kept it hidden for years. I was her first child, and you her second.”
I shake my head, bewildered, and he continues to explain.
“Your mother and my father were young when they had me. They split up and your mother got together with Yuri. But she left your father and reunited with mine, her first love…”
His voice trails off.
My father’s words come back to me. Haunting me.
"You're no better than your mother was. You deserve the same fate."
“He killed her,” I whisper. “Because she was in love with your father?”
He nods.
“And your father is… a member of your brotherhood?”
“The very best,” Nicolai says. “The pakhan.”
“And that’s who you want to turn to?”
“It is who I need to return to in America,” Nicolai says, but his eyes are on Demyan, not me. And then I realize. Nicolai was only here temporarily. Because of me. His father is pakhan of a brotherhood across the seas and now he can return.
And he’s my brother. My eyes fill with tears as I pull away from Maksym and go to Nicolai. He was the one who helped save me tonight.
“Thank you,” I tell him. He steps towards me and pulls me into a tight, brotherly hug that makes my tears finally fall. My brother. I thought my father and mother were my only family, and they’re dead. Now I know I have a brother…
And Maksym. I’m not alone.
“Leave now,” Demyan says. “Before any word gets out.” He turns to Maksym and they have a hurried word together.
