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“Well, what are you going to do?”
“Fuck knows. Jae Han isn’t going to take this well.”
“Yet, he married your sister without asking your approval. Do the same.”
“It’s different. Katya isn’t Hana. Hana is…”
“Unspoiled?” Kira smirked. “And pregnant, don’t forget that.”
I blew out a breath and rubbed my aching eyes.
“You’re overthinking this. Marry the girl, tell Jae what you’ve done, and move on. Retaliate if he tries to attack you.”
“I can’t kill Hana’s brother, as much as I might want to.” My snap merely made Kira shrug.
“Then love has made you weak.” She pushed herself to her feet and made for the door.
“Where are you going?”
“If you’re getting married, it means our convenient fake little engagement is over. My father will be looking for me,” she said. Right, Kira’s father, and her mission to avoid the arranged marriage that he had planned for her. Guilt landed a blow to my gut.
“I’m sorry. I promised to help, and now I’m breaking it.”
She shrugged, as hard as ever, never letting me see a crack in her tough façade to know how desperate she really was. “It couldn’t last forever. I was never really going to marry you to keep up appearances. You’re not my type,” she called over her shoulder, as she strolled from the room. I knew she was trying to lighten my guilt, and it nearly worked.
“Just worry about your own problems. You’ve got enough, with the ticking time bomb next door. I imagine the Songs, and probably the Lucianos as well, are already up in arms. Try and survive the night, and we’ll see where we stand. Also, don’t forget, in case love makes you blind, as well as weak, that you aren’t the only one.”
With that cryptic remark, Kira left me with my dark thoughts.
On one side of my mind was a blinding joy and wild sense of possession over the fact that Hana, my precious Cinderella, was carrying my child, and here, within my reach. The other side was dark and full of violent warning, a barbed kind of malevolence that sparked at the very thought of anyone threatening her, or intruding on our lives together.
“Don’t forget, in case love made you blind as well as weak, that you aren’t the only one.”
Her meaning slipped through the frantic worries in my mind and clicked into place there. A missing piece, restored. Ah, of course. Love made fools of us all, and I wasn’t the only one. I picked up my phone and made a call.
“Kat? We need to talk.”
* * *
We metat the Song warehouse by the docks. Well, I turned myself over to Jae Han Song at the warehouse by the docks. That was a more accurate way of putting it I supposed.
Katya had been concerned but accepting of my plan. Of course, no one knew better than her the sacrifices we all make to live in the world we did. I handed myself over to Jae because I didn’t only owe a debt to him, but to my own sister as well. I’d thought I was protecting her, I’d thought being hard, and distant and sending her away would see her safe and provided for. Only now, knowing Hana, could I understand how my strength of will had crushed her.
Jae Han Song had seen it in Katya when I couldn’t, and now, I saw it in Hana. Maybe men like us were bound to never learn until we fell in love.
Love, the only teacher who could reach our jaded, brutal hearts.
As soon as I entered, I was grabbed and roughed up. After a while, they left me bleeding on the floor of a large room, and Jae entered.
“Good to see you, brother-in-law,” I said, giving him a grin through a mouthful of blood.
“How dare you smile at me, after what you’ve done,” Jae said, his voice cold and furious. “Was this your real plan to get revenge on my family?”
I shook my head. “You really think I’d be dumb enough to do this all for revenge, and then have my sister deliver me to you for retribution? That doesn’t really make sense, does it?”
“Nobody ever claimed you were a genius, Ivanov. I once called you a rabid dog, and I think you’re living up to that label perfectly.”
“Still, I like living, I won’t risk it for revenge,” I said, spitting out blood.
