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Blood sprays across my shirt, but I don’t care as I watch him gurgle his life away. I wash my hand off using a hose in the corner, but I can’t help but stare at my wedding ring—a simple band of gold with one diamond insert from Paige’s ring.
She left you, you bastard.Somehow, the dead man found a way to hurt me with those tiny words.
“The woods?” Natasha asks.
I raise my head slowly and look at her as if she’s appeared from thin air. “Not you,” I reply. “Have his men bury him. I want them to see what a single-minded pakhan will do.”
“And will you tell Sonya?” she asks.
“Do you think I should?” My mouth tightens, wondering if Natasha will actually answer me.
“She should know that she can’t control her men,” replies Natasha. “For her own safety.”
We walk across the lawn back to the house as if nothing had happened, except I no longer have a shirt under my jacket.
“The guns I took from Gleb must have been the ones that killed Kenney,” I tell her. “But there’s no proof he pulled the trigger. I need more proof.”
Natasha nods. “Sonya’s men can redeem themselves by helping me find it.”
I enter my office alone. I’ve spent more time here since Paige left. The bedroom makes me feel her absence more. I pull my phone out of my suit pocket and scroll down to her name. Every nerve screams at me to push the call button. But my thumb refuses to move.
You coward.
I scoff as I sit down at my desk. What will I say when she asks what I did today? No point in lying to her. I could trick Paige to get her back, but I’d have to make her stay. I’d have to do things that would make her hate me even more. Things that would make me loathe myself.
Fuck love.
My phone vibrates in my hand. I look at the number and hope crumbles into disappointment as I recognize the name.Talia. Why didn’t I block her? Curiosity? I don’t know as I swipe right and answer her call.
Chapter 44
Andrei
Out of courtesy, I told my sister earlier this morning where her men could find the body. She was still in bed while Vanya scrambled out of it. My sister has a type, more brawn than a brain.
Fine. Let them keep her busy and out of my way.
“What is wrong with you?” Sonya barges into my office later, interrupting Dmitri and shrieking at the top of her lungs. “Why did you kill my guard? You had no proof, Andrei.”
The images have already spread far and wide among the Bratvas. There is no such thing as privacy in our world. My phone chimes, and I glance at a message from Popov.
Welcome back, pakhan.The instant feedback is favorable as my men grin at me as they pass me in the halls. Their eyes glow with approval.
But pride is not enough to knock the scowl off my face, and I stare coldly at my sister. “He was still in touch with Gleb, giving him information.” It’s a struggle to keep my tone calm. “Should I have waited and let him tell Gleb where to find you? Or perhaps you would’ve preferred him driving you to Gleb himself?”
“You should’ve told me first,” she mutters, holding her body tall. “Now I look like a fool.”
Her anger is renewed when I don’t argue with her assessment.
“I won’t have you undermining me,” she says. “You will tell me next time.”
“Fine. Next time, I’ll hand you the knife. Do you know how to slit a throat quickly, painlessly, without making a bloody mess?”
Sonya presses her lips tight together. “I am a pakhan.”
“You may have Igor’s blood.” I stand up from my chair, and my fists slam into the desk. “But you are still Eva’s daughter.”
Sonya can barely conceal the tears forming in her eyes. She was born into this life but wasn’t raised for it. Her frustration is not with me. It’s with herself because she knows this to be true. She spins on her heel and yanks the office door back on its hinges.
