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The pain that flashed over her face… I knew we were getting the cleaned up version.
Not that murder could ever really be clean.
I didn’t necessarily appreciate her thinking I was a serial killer—but I definitely had blood on my hands. There was no denying that.
“You saw?” I hazarded a guess.
“I saw the aftermath. I got to the safe room in time, she didn’t.” Her nostrils flared. “When Father wouldn’t make Svetlana return the ring to me, I told him he was to blame for Mother’s death.” She jerked her chin up, obstinacy flashing through her. “He went mad. That was when I told him I wasn’t going to marry you, when I spat in his face…” She smiled. “Seeing him worried for a second was almost worth the beating.”
I could feel Aidan’s surprise, even though he was a few blocks away.
For myself, I wasn’t too shocked. Inessa had a strange moral code, and I’d seen that only in our first day together.
I could easily imagine her standing up to Vasov, spitting in his face after he’d beaten her badly, then taking another beating because it was worth it.
The very idea of it both made me want to choke Vasov and pin her to the wall.
That kind of fire in a woman wasn’t something I saw often. Women were soft things to be protected and sheltered, until they were married at least. That was when the gloves came off. They were screwed until they were pregnant, then they popped out as many kids as their husband decided he could support, and they were left to raise said brats while the man went off and fucked whoever he wanted as was his God-given right.
Inessa hadn’t been cosseted or protected, and that I wanted to make up for that was strange. To me, at least. My feelings were in no way paternal for her, but fuck, she had me twisted up inside. And not in a good way.
I frowned at her, then turned to Aidan. “Don’t tell the folks.”
“They’ll want to know,” he said gently.
“Inessa will tell them herself when they ask.” And ask they would. Next Sunday probably. “Won’t you?” I queried, without looking back at her.
“With ease,” she agreed formally.
The confirmation had me staring daggers at my brother in warning, then, when he shrugged, I muttered, “See you tomorrow at the airport.”
He hesitated for a second, then replied, “Will do.” That hesitation had me wondering what he was covering up, but before I could ask, he cut the call, but his interested gaze was on Inessa all the while, and I couldn’t blame him.
She’d revealed a lot about herself with a very small amount of words.
Maybe I should have anticipated that. Or maybe Inessa was not the kind of woman you could anticipate. Period.
When I turned back to face her, I cocked a brow and asked, “Aren’t you going to ask about the airport?”
She shrugged. “I’m not going—you wouldn’t have ordered me to go shopping if I was. I assume it’s business.”
My frown darkened. “Don’t you want to know where I’m going?”
Aidan said she’d be worried.
Why wasn’t she worried?
Inessa frowned back at me. “If you want to tell me, I’ll want to know. Anyway, breakfast is ready.”
“I’ll shower—”
She cleared her throat. “No. This is warm. It’ll get cold if you shower.”
“You cooked?” My brows rose.
“It looked easy on the recipe.”
Fuck, I was way too like my old man.
