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Chapter51
Dante
“So, what do you say?” I ask Dmitri as we both sit in the huge leather chairs in the sitting room of his house. He nurses a glass of vodka while I sip a Scotch.
“Never look a gift horse in the mouth, Dante.”
“You’ll have my full support.”
“I appreciate that, friend,” he says, taking a sip of his vodka. “I’m pretty sure I might not need it once people learn the truth about our glorious leader though.
“I think you’re right.”
“I’ll wait and see how this unfolds then, and thank you for coming to me with this. You could have handled matters yourself. You’d have every right. I appreciate it.”
“Well, having someone sane and trustworthy as the head of the Bratva is good for my business too,” I remind him. Then I down my Scotch and excuse myself. Eager to get back to my wife, even if I’m not so keen on telling her what I’ve done.
* * *
It’s almostmidnight by the time I get back home. My guards patrol the gardens, but the house is quiet. I’m about to head upstairs to bed when the approach of footsteps interrupts me. Turning around, I see Sophia.
“Mrs. Moretti is in the den, sir,” she says quietly. “She insisted on waiting up for you.”
“Thank you, Sophia,” I say as I move to find Kat. My heart is heavy with the weight of what I’ve done these past twenty-four hours. Not that I regret any of it, but I anticipate the pain it will cause her. Maybe I should tell her tomorrow? Or the day after? Or after the baby is born? Or after he or she goes to college? Because then, she will still look at me like she once did.
Pushing open the door, I see her sleeping form on the sofa. She’s curled up into a ball with an open book on the floor beside her. Walking over, I pick it up and place it on the table. By the half-naked man on the cover, I guess it’s one of those romance books she’s so into… the kind where the good guy always gets the girl.
I crouch and run my fingertips over her cheek. She’s too damn beautiful and kind for my dark world, but she’s too much a part of my life now for me to ever let her go. So, instead, I will protect her and our child with every last breath in my body.
“Kat?”
She stirs. Her eyelids flicker open, and when she sees my face, she smiles. And now the air is full of untold truths, and it makes my chest tighten to even think about keeping what I just did from her. If she’s going to insist on looking at me like that, then I owe her the truth. And if it costs me never seeing that smile again, it’s a price I’ll have to pay.
“What are you doing down here,amore mio?”
“I wanted to wait up for you,” she says as she sits up on the sofa.
I cup her chin in my hand. “You missed me, huh?”
“Yes,” she breathes as the skin on her neck flushes pink.
“You have any nightmares while I was gone?” She hasn’t been having as many since we dealt with the monsters that haunt her, but she’s more likely to have them when I’m not here.
“Nope,” she grins at me. “But I did miss waking up next to you.”
Standing, I pull her up and into my arms. Running my nose over her hair, I breathe in her sweet scent. Cleansing and soothing me. If only it could cleanse my soul.
“Did you do what you needed to?” she asks.
Fuck, if only she knew the meaning behind that question and how what I’ve done these past two days weighs heavy on me. “Yes.”
“Good.” She wraps her arms around my waist and rests her cheek on my chest. “Can we go to bed now, then?” she purrs like my feral little kitten.
Bed? I should take her to bed and fuck her until we both fall asleep. “I need to tell you something, Kat,” I say instead.
“What?” Huge blue eyes find mine, full of love and trust that I am about to shatter into a million pieces. So, why am I doing it? Why not let her live in blissful ignorance? Because I love her too much to let her go on wondering what happened to her brother and where he is.
“We found him. We found Leo.”
