“Letting him think you were dead was the only way to keep you safe.”
“So, why now? Why did you wait so long to leave?” I can’t just sit here and say nothing. I wanted to, that wasmyplan, but I’m feeling so many things in addition to my own emotions, there’s no way I was going to be able to stay silent.
Dimitri blows out a breath as his shoulders drop. “You aren’t going to like this.”
My brows fly to my hairline as I jut forward a bit. “But Ilikedhearing how you almost killed me then left me because daddy said so?”
“Nikolai,” he growls in warning. “I just explained that.”
“Did you even try to bark back?”
He just sits there and shakes his head.
“Exactly. Whatever else you have to tell me, I’m sure it’ll be a fucking cake walk compared to that.”
“Your hit wasn’t a spur of the moment thing,mylak.”
I frown as I lean toward him. “Pardon the fuck out of me?”
Dimitri nods. “I don’t know what made me go snooping but I started going through the files in Boris’ office. You know how meticulous he is, he keeps records ofeverything, who he’s had or plans to have, offed included. He’d signed off on your hit a month before he barked it into existence.”
“Who ordered it?”
“I found one for me, too.” Dimitri swallows hard as he avoids my question. “It was written up at the same time as yours but I guess things changed somehow.”
“Who ordered the hit, D?”
“I also found paperwork for more offshore accounts than I knew Boris had. Accounts that were slowly trickling in decent sums of cash over an extended period of time. I’m pretty surethey aren’t his, but they were made to look like they were in case he found out about them.”
“Dimitri,” I snap, trying to lunge at him but Liv and Leon keep me rooted in place. “Who the fuck wanted me dead?”
“Your mother.”
I slump back against the couch as all the air whooshes from my lungs, as my ears start to ring. My heart drops to my stomach as my head spins, my vision blurring, and I feel like I’m going to be sick.
“My mother?” He nods as I try to blink away the confusion and tears. “My own fucking mother put a hit out on me?”
“On both of us.” Dimitri looks like he wants to come to me, like he wants to comfort me the way he used to but I’m not there yet. He’s dropping bombs today, he can comfort me after he begs for forgiveness and we start to pick up the pieces. “She wanted to get rid of both of us so Tati was the only heir. There was a notarized letter stating as much, and it included DNA tests proving she was Boris and Mia’s. I have pictures of all of this, it’s all saved in my private cloud as proof in case it disappeared.”
At least Tati is safe because of that.
The bastard back in that warehouse had me believing something happened to my sister but if she’s supposed to be the next in line for the Volkov Bratva, I doubt my mother will let anything happen to her.
“Niko,mylak, I am so fucking sorry. The last thing I wanted to tell you was that your mom was behind all of this shit but I had to in order for you to understand.”
We sit in silence for a few moments, my alpha pleading with his eyes for me to do just that while I try to process a fuckton more information that has me spiraling.
“You don’t have to think about that right now,” Liv whispers as she hugs my neck, grounding me before I got too far out of control. “Not that part. Focus on what your bonded alpha said,on what you feel through your bond, and decide how you want to handle it.” My omega kisses my shoulder then nips at my ear. “He looks like a sad little puppy who’s been kicked one too many times and while I hate to admit it, it has me feeling for the asshat.”
I snort through my tears as I turn the slightest bit, looking over the expression on her beautiful face.
She’s not wrong.
I don’t have to try to process the shit with my mom just yet, and I’m sure there’s more on that entire situation that Dimitri hasn’t shared. She might ultimately be the reason my mate tried to kill me, but that doesn’t mean I have to make this about Mia Kozlov.
“Damn right you don’t,” Liv says as she pulls my hair to the side and kisses my neck before her hands travel down over my chest and abs. “This is about you, honey. About you and him, and what you need in this moment to start to heal your bond.”
I nod as I lift my eyes to Dimitri, the alpha practically staring a hole through my head as he waits for me to speak, and I do. I force myself to relax and with a grin, I tell him exactly what I need.
