Page 96 of The Promise

God.

What did it matter?

Roman’s rage spilled through his heart, red and hot. “I’m not going to find a place to sleep tonight and hope he’s not already one mile closer to her.”

That didn’t seem to interest his father, maybe that should have been Roman’s first clue something else was more important, and he just hadn’t figured it out yet.

“But why did Dima come to you—practically alone?” Demyan asked, making Roman pause before he shoved his left arm into the jacket with a wince. “Who came with him? Where is Leonid? His father has taken over the Chicago bratva. If anyone from that organization wants to speak to me, it should be him. As far as I’m concerned, Dima is fucking nobody. Think about it, that was a bold move for him to do that here like he did. The way he did, Roman.”

He was hearing his father, sure, but he didn’t care to listen. That was the difference. Only one thing mattered to Roman, and it wasn’t Dima’s fucking games. It was Dima himself. That was the big problem here.

“So he’s feeling bold—who fucking cares? It’s only a matter of time before they find Karine in Vermont. We need to move her. Now.”

“We only have one piece of a very confusing puzzle. Don’t you think before we go making any rash decisions, we should find out more? Getting answers to some of these questions could help, Roman. Leonid could have just as easily requested to speak to me himself, and we would have at least pretended to have a civilized conversation first. It’s bullshit semantics—yes, but it’s how it’s done.”

Demyan’s brows furrowed in his thoughts, and it pissed Roman off like nothing else that his father wasn’t hearing him first.

Roman glared at the others in the room, growling under his breath, “Get out. Now. Leave us alone.”

That caught Demyan’s attention, making him meet his son’s eye. However, he didn’t protest the demand, and the two of them waited in silence until every other person in the room was gone. They were finally alone.

It took every ounce of focus and strength he had to stay balanced, and not let the pain stabbing throughout his body take control, but Roman did it. He had to. “I need you to hear what I’m saying. Karine has to be moved. Dima wasn’t fucking around tonight. She isn’t safe out there, with three bulls watching over the whole property. It’s only a matter of time before they find her.”

Demyan stared at his son, then nodded. “I hear you, and I also know she’s as safe there tonight as she was today ... otherwise, I doubt the first move Dima would have made was to accost you on the highway, Roman. It seems like you haven’t heard me, no? Something’s not right here.”

“Nothing is fucking right here. If what he did to me was a warning, what will he do to Karine if he can get his hands on her?”

“That’s exactly where my question lies,” Demyan continued, before moving to grab the wheelchair as Roman started to fall backward. His father said nothing as he rested into the chair, and his swimming vision cleared. “It doesn’t make sense to do what he did—not if you consider we have business between our organizations. It was just violence. Just for the girl. Why?”

“Because Dima is a fucking lunatic.” Roman managed through clenched teeth as he massaged the pad of his thumb hard into his temple to relieve the pressure there.

“I don’t think that’s it. I think they’re hiding something, and we need to find out what it is.”

“We can work on finding out all their secrets, if you want to waste your time, but we need to keep Karine safe, first.”

Demyan narrowed his eyes at his son. “Karine will never be safe. The two of you will spend the rest of your lives looking over your shoulder if we don’t find out the why here, Roman. Why is this happening? If she just needs to be found, for everything to come to an end, then like you said, it’s only a matter of time. Even we won’t be able to keep her hidden from them forever.”

Roman hated how sharp the clarity of his reality settled in on him in that moment. The truth was a cruel bitch in the way that he never really wanted to face it—life was just easier without the moral details involved. This wasn’t quite the same.

“You may think I don’t get it, but I do,” Demyan said, sighing as he regarded Roman still struggling with the throbbing ache of his concussion and every other injury. “I understand why you’re reacting the way you are right now. I don’t blame you for wanting to protect her, but you need to hear what I’m saying. There are two ways of dealing with this situation, and—”

“All I care about is keeping Karine safe.”

Even though he repeated the same words, Roman’s resolve slipped. What his father said made sense. Dima’s move was suspicious.

All wrong from the jump.

“Thing is, how did he even know where you were, Roman—who provided that info?” Then, Demyan shrugged, adding quietly, “You can try as hard as you want to keep her safe, but it won’t be forever. The smarter thing to do is to find out what is motivating them to raise hell to get this girl back. There has to be a reason for it. What is it—why could he find you, but not her?”

Roman closed his eyes, barely soothing the pain at the back of his head. He was trying to lie to himself—thinking he could do anything when he couldn’t barely fucking stand straight for longer than thirty seconds without wanting to puke. He couldn’t spring into action right now if necessary. Once again, Dima had made sure of it.

“All I know,” Roman uttered, each word slow and measured, “is that Karine doesn’t want to be with him. She made that very clear to me. He was never her choice.”

“And yet, she’s spoken for, which seems to be enough for him to do all of this, hmm? There’s something about this situation we don’t know, and maybe if we find that out, a lot of this will make sense. For now, we need to accept the fact that she is spoken for, and we can’t just run away from an agreement like that. Not in our world.”

Roman gritted his teeth until his molars ached. Just one more thing to cause him pain.

“Karine doesn’t belong to him. She’s already mine. In every way that fucking matters.”