“I’m calling him Charles.”
“You can. I’ll call him Salome and we’ll see which one he takes to.” I cuddle the fur baby to my chest and feel the slightest break, the softest of ruptures in my fury.
No.
No.
Maxim holds me tighter. “It’s okay to let go, Victoria. You are safe here. In my arms.”
“I want your name,” I declare.
“You’ll have it.”
“Promise me.” I grab at his shirt. “Promise.”
“I vow it. You think I don’t want the same rights,kotik? I almost hadto concede to the O’Donnellys. They have more of a claim to you than I do and I’m not about to let that continue.”
I sag against him.
Even gross and desperately in need of a shower, he doesn’t let go of me.
That has to mean something.
“Korovka, what is it?”
“I doubted you,” I confess. “And I dislike myself for it.”
He hesitates. “Past tense?”
“I realized they were manipulating me. Someone didn’t like that you vouched for me, but they tried to starve me, Maxim. They… I was so cold. I drenched my dress before my arrest and they didn’t care. I barely had anything to drink and they never gave me a chance to sleep. They refused to let me use the bathroom. They denied me a lawyer and… they showed me pictures.”
I suck down air, suddenly aware he had no idea what happened after I left him.
Once I’ve explained the last couple days to him, his thumb gently hovers over my bruised cheek and he rumbles, “My fierce kitten,” in Russian. Then, he grows still. “Someone intercepted the dress I sent to you.”
“I’m sorry, Maxim.”
“Why are you sorry? If anyone’s sorry, it’s me, dammit.”
“I didn’t have faith in you.”
He chucks me under the chin. “As you so rightly declared earlier—who did you call? Who did you trust with the faith you apparently lost?”
“You.” I stare into his eyes, seeing softness there, warmth. Not hate. No resentment. That was my biggest fear.
“Precisely. You knew, in your heart, that I would never betray you. Leave this with me,kotik. I shall figure it out and make sure those who hurt you are punished?—”
“No.”
“No?” He scowls at me. “You’re still going ahead with this madness?”
I look straight into his eyes. “Yes. If they did anything, it’s show me that they can take over a police station. They can make multiple cops turn a blind eye, never mind completely fabricate a case from the ground up, while handling a corpse and using that corpse, one of their members’ children, for their own gain.”
“Victoria—”
“No, Maxim. Becoming one of themwill?—”
“There isn’t an ounce of loyalty among them! They’re like a pack of wild animals, tearing each other apart. Have you heard of Clyde Korhonen?”
