Nikko lowers the gun trained on Rafail. I release a breath with a gasp. Zoya gently squeezes my hand, and the lump in my throat dissolves. Hot, fat tears silently roll down my cheeks.
Rafail nods before returning his attention to Gleb. “Go on.”
My mind, however, is reeling.
She looked almost identical to Polina Romanova.
We were all adopted.
Does that mean…? Anissa… somewhere out there, I havea sister?
“When I heard Polina was coming to Moscow, I knew.”
“You,” Rafail snarls. “You were responsible for Anissa leaving, weren’t you?”
Gleb stares at him, the whites of his eyes bright in the dark night. His silence condemns him.
“It was your chance to bring the fire of hell from the cartel to both the Romanovsandthe Kopolovs,” Semyon concludes, shaking his head. “You motherfucking son of abitch.”
“Semyon,” Rafail says so low you can hardly hear him. A warning to keep his shit together. Semyon clamps his lips together, simmering.
Gleb doesn’t answer.
Rafail’s gaze hardens, his jaw taut as he turns to Mikhail. “We have family obligations, but make no mistake—this is not over.” His gaze shifts from Mikhail to Gleb, his eyes flashing in a way I know all too well. “Gleb will face swift punishment. And believe me, it will be as merciless as he deserves.”
Rafail’s gaze darkens as he turns to me, his expression cold and intense. Unreadable.
What does this mean for us?
We were never married.
He lied to me.
He took me as his own and had no right to.
Shifting his gaze to Mikhail, his voice is low and controlled. “You and I will discuss Polina.” His eyes lock onto mine again, but this time, they’re burning with pain and frustration but also a barely restrained fire. “I know I don’t have a claim on her,” he says, his voice tightening. “But that doesn’t mean I’m willing to let her go without a fight.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Rafail
I’ll never,as long as I live, forget the look of betrayal on my wife’s face.
No.
Not my wife.
The truth hits me as hard as it did the day I found out my parents died. She was never mine.
I’ve fallen in love with a woman I have no claim to.
The Romanov brothers might kill me still, and I half wonder if I wouldn’t welcome death, but I said what I meant: I will fight. I will fight for her.
I get a call from Popov. I look to Mikhail, and he gives me permission with a stern nod. I defer to no one, but in this moment, it feels right to allow him permission to call his shots. Hell, if one of them had kidnapped one of my sisters, I know exactly what I’d do.
“Yes.”
“We have Soloto’s associates in our sights.”
