AllFreeNovel
Share Us
54
DMITRI
I’ve never lost my temper like that with a woman before.
Bee frequently irritates me, but that’s different. She’s the little sister I never wanted. The women that came before and after Elena were placeholders; faceless distractions that lasted only long enough to warm my bed for an hour or two. I barely spoke to them, much less fought with them.
Then there was Elena.
Good-natured. Sweet-tempered. Docile and soft-spoken and shy. She was the epitome of innocence and purity. The perfect wife.
And she left me completely unprepared to deal with the thunderstorm that is Wren Turner.
Another factor I hadn’t anticipated? Bee taking Wren’s side on this one. Nothing says so as clearly as when she walks into the kitchen the next morning with a withering scowl aimed directly at me.
“Morning, asshole.”
“What happened to ‘ride-or-die’?” I drawl over the lip of my steaming coffee mug.
“It’s precisely because I’m your ride-or-die that I get to tell you when you’re being an asshole. And guess what? The time for that is now.”
I set my mug down and shove it away. Even coffee as black and acrid as my soul isn’t helping this morning. “She doesn’t fucking listen,” I growl. “She’s constantly questioning me. Always picking fights, refusing to accept the fact that I know better.”
“Christ on a fucking cracker, man! Do you even hear yourself?” Bee slams her palms down on the counter. “You need to stop comparing her to Elena. It’s not fair, Dmitri.”
I bristle defensively. “I’m not doing that.”
“Like hell you are! ‘She doesn’t listen. She’s constantly questioning me. She’s always picking fights.’ Wah-wah-fucking-wah. You’re like a little baby. All I’m hearing is that you’re threatened by the fact that she’s her own person. She’s got opinions and thoughts and she’s not afraid to voice them. I get that you’re not used to being with a woman like that—but maybe, just maybe, it’s a good thing.”
I rise to glare down at her, the stool scraping and tottering behind me. “What are you trying to say?” I demand. “That Elena wasn’t her own person? That she didn’t have opinions or thoughts of her own?”
Bee recoils and the intensity of her venom recedes. “Now, come on, D. I loved her, too. And you know that’s not what I mean.”
“Really?” I walk around the counter to corner her into the cabinets. “Because it feels like you’ve been taking potshots at Elena for a while now. It feels like you have something to say about her.”
Cornered though she is, Bee’s jaw drops indignantly. “That is so not true. I’m just forced to skirt around the truth because I know it’s a sensitive subject for you and I don’t want to hurt you.”
My fists clench tight at my sides. “What ‘truth’ are you skirting round?”
She darts a glance at the kitchen entrance, no doubt checking for Wren. But the hallway remains empty. “You know I loved Elena,” she says again in a quiet croak. “She was?—”
“I know what she was,” I interrupt. “I don’t need you to tell me.”
Bee clamps her mouth shut for a moment and takes a deep breath through her nose. “You know what?” she says at last. “I’m not jumping into the cesspool with you. When you’re ready to have a real conversation about this, then?—”
Bzz. Bzz. Bzz.
I look down impatiently at my phone where it’s shimmying across the countertop. “It’s Aleksandr,” I growl by way of explanation as I answer the call. “Yeah?”
“Dmitri.” His voice is somber. Something’s not right. “There’s been an incident. Some of our guys had a clash with the Irish.” I rise to my feet. “We got two of theirs, but… they got one of ours.”
“Who?”
“Akim.”
No. My free hand balls into a fist. “Fuck. His girlfriend is pregnant, isn’t she?”
“Yeah.” Aleks sounds lower than I’ve heard in a long time. It makes sense: he and Akim were born within months of each other. They’ve been close since the cradle. “I, uh… I was over there only last week for dinner, and I… I…” He takes a breath. “Dmitri?”
