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“Marriage,” Gio sighed. “It’s the most terrifying thing. I have this compulsion to always know she’s safe. It’s all-consuming.”
He didn’t need to say more. I could read it from his face. I’d expected him to feel uncomfortable with that tidbit, but he seemed resolved and…happy. Gio Detta wasn’t the kind of man who did happy. If there was anyone who knew how deep my thirst for vengeance lay, it would be him. They murdered both his parents when he was still a kid and had three younger brothers to look after.
When a strangled voice left Gio’s mouth, I looked up.
“Oh,bella,” he hissed. “I’ve warned you about what would happen if you wore that dress in public.”
My gaze returned to his wife. She’d just gone out on the dance floor with Mary. Her tight red dress showed only a miniscule amount of cleavage.
“Relax,” I said. “It’s just a dress.”
“It’s drawing the attention of every man out there.”
“I’ve seen you with half-naked women on your arm. You never seemed to give a damn.”
“Not my wife, not my circus,” he claimed. Then, after seeming to have made a decision, he followed my advice and relaxed back into his seat. “It’s going to be an interesting night.”
He sounded like a man besotted with his wife. The poor bastard.
Bored with Gio’s fascination of girls night, I grabbed my drink.
I knew something was off the moment I noticed Gio’s crooked smile and followed his gaze. My heart almost stopped. A woman sat at the table who looked exactly like Katya, but wasn’t her. She couldn’t be.
Something crashed onto the floor.
I saw red, and it wasn’t just because of the shiny, tight-as-skin dress Katya wore. “What the fuck?”
“Relax,” Gio said in a mocking tone. “It’s just a dress.”
I was going to burn it. And every man who stared at her. It took some effort for me to hide my rage. I sent Angel a text, instead of calling him. Gio didn’t need to know I was putting two more men on Katya’s private booth. He might think I was doing it for the wrong reasons.
I watched Katya dance with some asshole in a shiny suit. An ugly emotion rose inside of me and set my chest on fire. I didn’t care much for the feeling. I didn’t care for any feelings actually, but especially not this one.
I forced my brain back to my time in Siberia, back to the cold where nothing else but survival had mattered.
I replayed some of the close-combat training I’d gotten in those dark woods at nightfall. I recalled gutting the man who had tried to slit my throat. Sokolov never allowed personal fights or going one-on-one without it serving a specific purpose. Which in that case had been to weed out which of his two particular proteges were the toughest.
None of those fights had made me feel as pumped up as watching Katya with another man. The asshole Katya was dancing with got closer to her and whispered something in her ear.
He touched Katya’s shoulder, and I gripped the armrests of my chair. I had gutted the apple of Sokolov’s eye with a fish knife. I felt like doing the same to the fucker who touched Katya.
Finally, Katya pulled back from Shiny Asshole and I relaxed. Composed once again, I sat back and noticed Gio eying me.
“Yeah,” he drawled. “I can see you’re taking your own advicesowell.”
I didn’t deign that with an answer. Instead, I sent him an icy stare.
He chuckled.
I cursed.
No longer able to sit there while the action was going on downstairs, I jumped up. Gio’s loud laughter rang in my ears as I made my way downstairs to the dance floor.
15
KATYA
Several hours after the Svetlana interruption the night progressed into a dance fest. Not allowing me to drown in misery, Tommie pulled me onto the dance floor.
