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She shakes her head. “No. I think he just wanted me to believe that he would. That he could. I told him that if he forced himself on me, that would just prove how weak of a man he was.”
I feel a reluctant bloom of pride. “Smart girl.”
“And,” she adds, “I knew you would come for me.”
I turn my face out the window so she can’t see me grimace. As forest fades into the highway, I think about the way she yelled at Taylor to back off. She’s only known me for a matter of months and she was ready to go to battle for me. Against her own sister.
The more I talk to her, the longer I’m in her presence, the more I realize something that I can’t quite escape from: this is a woman who deserves to know the truth.
The problem is,I can’t give her what she’s asking.
“You shouldn’t have started something with your sister over me.”
“You’re going to be my husband,” she says firmly. “Taylor needs to respect that. I understand that this has been hell for her, too. She’s gotten caught up in the chaos of it all. But she still doesn’t have the right to tell me what to do with my life. No one does.”
“What about your father?” I suggest gently. “Considering everything that has happened, he might agree with Taylor.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she answers. “It won’t change my decision. I know what I want, Ilarion. I wantyou. Maybe that’s selfish considering everything I’ve put my family through, but…I can’t stop wanting you.”
Fuck me.I’d known from the moment I met Celine that I could never love her.
But I never foresaw this.
Suddenly, the fact that Taylor is pregnant with my baby seems too big a secret to keep from this innocent, open-hearted woman. It feels like a betrayal considering how much she’s willing to sacrifice for me.
“What’s wrong?” she asks, reaching out and cupping my face with her palm.
The fact that I want to duck out of her reach only cements my decision. I have to tell her. “Listen Celine…there’s something I need to tell you.”
She frowns, unease and fear seeping back into her eyes. “Okay…”
“I—”
The explosion that sounds right then is like the world tearing itself in two. My eardrums nearly burst. Every thought, every memory, every sensation I’ve ever experienced condenses down to one tightly knotted fear in my chest. And that fear has a name.
Taylor.
48
ILARION
We skid to a stop with an ear-splitting screech of the tires. Celine is too terrified to even scream. I shove her down into the wheel well, then grab her face and force her to look at me.
“Stay here. Do you understand that?Stay here.”
I don’t wait to see if she’s following orders. I leap out of the car, my boots hitting the gravel hard. “What the fuck was that?” I ask Ivan, my driver, as he climbs out with me and cocks his gun.
“Not sure,pakhan. Looks like someone is trying to block our path.”
I look to the front of the caravan. All the other trucks have come to a halt like us, strewn at awkward angles around the road. Smoke is billowing in every direction. I can’t see farther than ten or twenty yards ahead.
“It has to be Gregor. Get back in the car and stay there with Celine. Lock the doors. Don’t open them for anyone but me.”
I don’t wait to see if he understands, either. I just unholster my weapon and charge toward the source of the explosion.
Dima and Mila fall into step along the way. I glance at my sister as we all run with guns in hand. “Is—”
“Taylor is fine,” she reassures me. “She tried following me out, but I managed to lock her inside.”
