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“Received. Clean and clear.”
Whoever planned tonight wasn’t just trying to kill me. They wanted an audience. They wanted every crime family in attendance to watch Roman Sokolov bleed. It was calculated.
Maxim exhales loudly. “I’m coming. I don’t care if I have to burn half of Chicago to find the bastard who ordered this. We need to teach whatever motherfuckers that were behind it why they shouldn’t mess with us.”
“No. You stay in Florida.”
“Roman, they took a shot at you. At Aurora.” His voice drops into something cold enough to freeze blood. “They just signed their own death warrants. Let me come. I’ll rip this city apart until somebody gives us a name.”
“No.”
He starts to object, but I cut him off.
“I’m not pulling resources away from one territory because some idiot decided to take a shot at me. That’s exactly how organizations become vulnerable. You keep things running there. I’ll handle Chicago.”
There’s another reason I don’t say out loud. As much as I trust my brother, Maxim has never been known for restraint. His solution to almost every problem is to kick the door down first and ask questions later. Right now, I need answers before I start a war. Whoever orchestrated tonight’s attack is still out there, and I intend to find them before they realize just how badly they’ve underestimated me.
“You really think you can manage this yourself?”
“I don’t intend to manage it alone. I have my men. I have my captains. But the person responsible for tonight…” My jaw tightens as Aurora’s terrified face flashes through my mind. “That person belongs to me.”
Maxim lets out a resigned sigh. “Fine. Let me know the moment you need me.”
I look down at the freezing water surrounding me, but I barely feel it anymore.
“Whoever ordered this made one fatal mistake,” I say quietly. “They missed.”
“And now,” I continue, my voice hardening, “I’m going to find them, and when I do, they’ll wish they hadn’t.”
Maxim chuckles on the other end. “Well, looking on the bright side, now you know you married a selfless woman. One who’s willing to step in front of a bullet for you, even though she still hates you for the way this all started. Not many men have that. Hell, in our world, most wives are busy plotting how to kill their husbands. You’ve won, brother.”
I let out a frustrated breath. “I haven’t won. What the hell are you talking about? I’m supposed to be the one protecting her, not the other way around. Just earlier today I realized she couldn’t even handle a gun properly.
“And tonight she puts herself in harm’s way like she doesn’t understand how dangerous our world is. She’s giving me a fucking headache. She’s like a child who doesn’t know the danger of fire but keeps reaching for it anyway.”
Maxim’s voice softens. “I get it. But you can’t let the guilt eat you alive. What happened in the past wasn’t your fault.”
I swear under my breath.
He chuckles again. “So tell me, brother, having a wife… is it a blessing or a curse?”
I stay quiet for a long moment. “A blessing.” Then, almost immediately, I correct myself. “No. It’s a curse.”
“That's why I'm never getting married.”
Maxim laughs, but I don’t join him. I sink deeper into the freezing water, letting the cold bite into my skin while the weight of everything I feel for Aurora sits heavy in my chest.
Chapter 16
Aurora
I still can’t explain Roman’s reaction.
It doesn’t make any sense to me why he’s so angry that I tried to save his life. The least he could have said was thank you. Was it reckless for me to throw myself in front of him the moment I saw the gun? Yes. In that split second, though, the only thing that filled my mind was getting him out of the way before the bullet could hit him. And I didn’t stop to consider if it was going to hit me instead.
It’s strange even to me. I’m supposed to hate him. If anything, his death would free me from this marriage and everything that came with it. Yet a part of me doesn’t seem to want that freedom. This isn’t the cage I expected. I know it’s only been a week, but being married to Roman is different from the cold, cruel future I had pictured. He’s still a mystery, still difficult, still dangerous, but he’s not exactly what I feared either.
Even so, I still don’t fully understand why I was willing to put myself in harm’s way for him. At the very least, he should have thanked me. His fury makes no sense.
