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“You’ll make a great boss,” I lie. “Look at how good you executed all of this. I’m impressed.” False flattery, but I can see his lips wanting to twitch up. “The girls will be lucky to have you.”
“Not just me,” he says proudly. I try to keep my face neutral, but the crease on my forehead gives away my confusion. “Sophia. She’ll be my wife. Poor girl can’t have children. Now we have the perfect family. Two girls, who are young enough they won’t remember their real parents after a while. They’ll only know me as Daddy.”
I’m so shocked that the first thing my mind conjures is the fact that Charlotte is five, old enough to remember us, so his plan isn’t quite as fool-proof as he hopes. But then my face falls as betrayal sinks deep into my chest. It makes it hard to breathe. I close my eyes as realization dawns on me.
“I thought once a traitor, always a traitor? Wouldn’t her double-crossing a friend be the same thing?”
“We set this up from the beginning. You and Demetri were meant to see each other that first night. You see, Sophia wanted his baby but couldn’t get pregnant. She was banging him long before you were. Then you entered the picture, and he stopped giving her the time of the day. I’ve never met a woman so scorned by her best friend. Now we need both of you out of the picture.” He laughs, shaking his head, proud of himself.
He continues, “Honestly, the plan is genius. I knew it was a solid one when he went crazy searching for you. Now I get to crush him. I’ve imagined this moment for the last decade. Did you know Nina was going to be mine? But then he saw her, and suddenly she was no longer going to be my wife. But she still kept fucking me. She didn’t love him. She only loved the power that came with being his wife. Stupid bitch. I always held the power. And I stripped it away from her.”
Chapter 35: Demetri
MyphonedingsandI use my knees to steer my car and I check the message. Mikhail sends me a selfie of him and Katrina, with a timed count down. My eyes dart back to the road. I can only assume that count down is for nothing good. Looking at the picture again, it’s too up close to see anything in the background. If this is what it truly feels like, I can’t say I’ve ever truly felt fear before. At the moment, it’s clawing at my throat as it winds its way closer to my heart.She’s going to die.It’s all I can think. I pushed her away, and because of my actions, she is at the mercy of the enemy. I should have treated her better. A clawing sensation enters my chest, leaving more scars on my soul. If I could turn back time, I would. I would have told myself that protecting my heart wasn’t worth it when she already owned it. No matter how high I tried to build the fortress around that beating muscle, she already dug her way in. It didn’t matter that I tried to push her away, and now it’s going to be too late to say I’m sorry and explain I never stopped loving her. The first claw digs into my heart; it punctures easily and bleeds red.
Instead of heading toward my home, I go to my club. I already know I won’t find anyone there. “When we get to the club, you can get a cab to leave.”
“Are you willing to give your life for my sister?” Luca asks, his face completely serious. “The way I live, it’s always family protects family. I don’t care about the differences between Katrina and me. I will always have her back. Even if it means placing my life on the line.”
“If Katrina dies, so do I.”
“That’s smartandstupid. Walking in like a cowboy can get you shot up and will leave two little girls without parents.”
My head slowly turns toward him. “If I’m dead, then they’re already dead. I will protect all three of them to the best of my ability, and if I fail, I will lay down my life. I’m nothing without any of them. You can go to my house just in case someone shows up there.”
I park the car, not waiting for Luca to get out. I storm into my building and go upstairs. My IT guy, Levi, is there waiting for me.
“Give me the coordinates of my cousin.” The stupid fucker is probably still carrying the phone I pay for. Katrina’s phone tracker is still showing her mother’s home, giving me no help for their location.
It takes what looks like two swipes of his fingers for Levi to tell me an address. It’s my first wife’s family’s cottage. It was gifted to us when we were married. She loved the place, but it was too far away from the hustle and bustle of life. I haven’t been there since before she died, but she would go visit it regularly. I even had Mikhail check in on her from time to time when she needed to get away from this lifestyle. When she was murdered, it was too hard to step foot inside. I had my cousin board it up for me. My intention was, once Charlotte got older, I would give that property to her as a gift.
I walk toward the wall and lift the carpet before pulling the wood panel beneath it open. I pick out the largest gun and a pistol before flipping everything down into place.
Has my cousin been betraying me this entire time? We grew up so close. It’s hard to believe he would attempt to hurt me.
I get in my car and head toward the one place I have avoided all these years. It’s another reminder I was never able to protect Nina.
Katrina
Timepassesslowly.I’vecome to the conclusion that I’m okay with being emotionally messed up. I’ve been praying for Demetri to come and save me. Even after how he’s treated me, I believe he would never allow anyone to hurt me. Worse, all I want to do is feel his arms around me and have him tell me it’s going to be all right. And I want to kiss those lips of his.
I should have never entertained the idea of being with a man who was the head of the Bratva. Our families will never see eye to eye. Can either of us truly say we can trust each other after all the things that have passed between us? Yet in my heart remains an ember of hope. It glows with the need to be loved.
The front door swings open, and my heart leaps into my throat. Instead of Demetri walking in as I’ve been envisioning—like Rambo with both hands full of loaded guns, and an evil glare—it’s my best friend.
Now that I think about it, it was Sophia who supplied me with the drugs when I overdosed. My chest feels like a vice is crushing it. Sophia was never my best friend, I slowly begin to realize. All those years of friendship had to be lies.
“Did you hate me all along, or did it happen gradually?” I ask her, and she rolls her eyes. “You wanted me to overdose, and that’s why you gave me the needle.” It’s all becoming clear now.
“You have this habit of making everything about you. When will you stop playing the victim? No one made you put it in your arm. No one made you get pregnant. All you ever do is cry about your life, then everyone around you is forced to clean up your mess.”
“You didn’t answer my question.” I try to look behind her to see if she is by herself.
“At first, we were real friends. I looked like a better person with you around. But then people started to bring me down to your level, and that’s when I started to hate you. Little by little. I didn’t have a family to come to my aid, to love me, or to fight for me. I had a mean old aunt who thought I should’ve never been born. Demetri was supposed to be my ticket out. But a man like that needs an heir. One I learned I couldn’t give him. So, the plan slowly formed, where you’d meet Demetri. I knew you would ride his dick. What you were never supposed to do was make him fall in love with you. That part was for me. You stole it like everything else. You don’t deserve him.”
“He had a daughter before mine,” I point out.
“And you were supposed to give him a boy!”
