Page 27 of Lord of Justice

The taste of that Macallan is slick in my throat. It should have a relaxing burn, but merely being in Sinclair's company for an hour sours my stomach. "Do you have any word from Melina on my wife's activity?" I'd given Iris her phone back, but I know she won't be checking in with me until I insist that she does.

"Yes, she updates me every two hours. They've been at her old apartment with Rose this afternoon." He chuckles. "Melina says there's been a lot of tears and wailing. Mostly from Rose."

I don't understand women's tears. Men usually weep when you're torturing them or they're being sentenced to life in prison. Women let loose for everything. Happy or sad, hungry, or if they saw a chipmunk in the park. Still, two hoursof sustained sobbing seems like overkill.

"Let's go pick up my wife." I check my watch irritably. "I'm sure her sister Rose will have some sort of dramatic pronouncement before I can remove Iris from her soggy clutches."

***

Skol'zkiy ublyudok- Russian for slimy bastard.

Chapter Thirteen

In which Iris is the delusional Miss Bennet and Andrey, the blood-soaked Mr. Darcy.

Iris…

When we arrive at the apartment Rose and I share, there's another embarrassing display as Melina and Av insist on scanning the neighborhood before allowing me out of the car. Which is a little ridiculous.

These apartments are very expensive, and this is a good neighborhood. It's close to Columbia University, so its mostly students getting bankrolled by mom and dad. I'm already getting side glances as we head for the elevators. Once we reach my floor, the very nice accounting majors who live across the hall from us are about to greet me until they see the Redwood's - I mean, Av's expression. They turn around and head right back into their apartment.

My heart twists as I unlock the door, knowing this will be the last time I'll do this as if it's mine, too. I have one foot into our entry whenRose tackles me, slamming me against the wall and knocking over the little rack that we keep for hanging up coats.

"What thefuckhappened to you!" Rose sobs, touching my face, my hands, my shoulders, for what, I don't know. Maybe bullet holes. "I go to a party with Jeremy. I come home. You're not here and the next day, I find out that you werearrestedand then you weremarried?What the actual fuck?" She's crying hard enough that it takes her a while to get all of this out, and by then I've gotten her over to the sofa.

Melina moves behind us, going into the kitchen and putting on the tea kettle like she's been here before. Knowing her, anything is possible. Redwood - I mean, Av - closes the door, standing out in the hall.

"I am so sorry Rosie." I hug her tight enough to make her ribs creak. "I'm so sorry. The whole night spiraled into this out-of-control mess, and the only people I was able to talk to were Violet and Roman. A bunch of the big wigs like Dmitri showed up. There were a lot of words tossed around like, 'unprecedented!'"

She manages a watery smile before it dissolves into a frown again. "You tell meright nowthat you are not married to Andrey Morozov. This is some kind of a sick joke, right?"

Almost as big a joke as you marrying Jeremy,I think.

"I understand that this sounds insane," I say, forcing myself to meet her gaze. "But you've been building up this whole thing with Jeremy without me knowing how intense it was getting. Well… I started seeing Andrey a couple of months ago. I wasn't ready to talk about it at the time because I knew you'd go apeshit." Self-consciously, I push my hair behind my ears, watching her eyes bulge with horror.

"You're lying," she says flatly. "There's no way."

"Look, I know it seems improbable, yes, but there is… something." I shrug helplessly. "He makes me feel protected, and safe. Like nothing bad could ever happen."

Sweet baby jesus, I sound like a Jane Austen fanfiction, like I'm delusional Miss Bennett and Andrey is the blood-soaked Mr. Darcy.

"After I got arrested, and yes, Iwasset up, Andrey came right away and got me out. He made all the charges disappear."

"About that," she snaps. "Fucking Jackson had the nerve to call and demand answers, all mad about his precious Rolexes when my sister was injail!Yeah, we're not working for that asshole anymore." Rose is looking at me like I stole all herChristmas presents. "Why did you take that job without me?"

"Because I was home and…" I flounder helplessly. "You were out with Jeremy and I wanted to know that I could do it by myself, I guess."

"Do you think Jackson had something to do with the arrest?" Rose asks quietly. She's glancing at Melina, who doesn't look like she's paying attention though we both know she's listening to every word.

"I keep wondering about that," I admit. "He sent me out to the ass end of Long Island for a pick up from a guy who was skating the chemical edge of something heavy duty. Within minutes, the police came storming down the driveway and arrested me."

"Is that where you got this?" Rose asks, touching the cut on my cheek.

"Yeah, they weren't gentle. It was terrifying." I take her hand, still holding a balled-up tissue. "When Andrey showed up, though, looking so worried, it hit me that Iknewhe'd come for me, that he would want to be there and protect me. Right then, I knew I was going to marry him."

There's a look of utter stupefaction on her face. "Iris. Honey. In no universe is there a timeline where you would fall in love with that man. I wouldknowif you'd been secretly dating someonefor two months! Tell me what I'm missing. Please, Iris honey, it'sme."

Oh, that corkscrew of guilt just keeps digging deeper into my heart. If she knew what really happened, Rose would never let me go. "Admittedly, we used to think he was appalling, scary," I begin.