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Walking toward me, he stopped abruptly when I spun Brooklyn’s picture around on the countertop and shoved it in his direction.
“Did you kill Brooklyn too?”
His gaze flicked from her photo back to my face and held it a beat too long. Then instead of saying something—anything—he reached out and swiped the bottle of vodka off the counter, carrying it with him to the opposite side of the kitchen, reaching for a cabinet door.
His silence infuriated me.
I didn’t even think before I hurled the tumbler in my hand at the same cabinet. Glass shattered and vodka sprayed everywhere like a bomb.
Misha jumped back with what was probably a swear word and whirled to face me, his blue eyes wide. “Are you mad?!”
“I’m fucking furious!” I shouted back, realizing a second too late he probably meant crazy, not angry. But either way, it was clear I was beyond the point of reason. “You, who’s always spouting off about trust and honesty! And then you turn around and fucking violate it?! Youusedme!”
“I did, yes.”
“You—what?” I blinked. I didn’t expect him to admit it so bluntly. Kinda took the wind out of my sails. I had a speech prepared and everything.
“I used you,” Misha said, enunciating it slowly and spreading his arms wide. “I stole the information off your phone to make headway on this issue instead of torturing you for it, as I was instructed to do. Your so-called friend isn’t dead. I broke into her apartment and retrieved the data I needed from her devices. She’s not even aware we’re on to her. Pretty soon we’ll have the next link in the chain. And so on and so forth. So, yes, Marek, I used you to get what I needed so I could stop killing every drug dealer that crossed my path in order to find the one I wanted.”
“Wow…” His admission rang in my ears as I stared at him, trying to catch a glimpse ofsomethingbeneath the blank exterior he presented. “You don’t even feel guilty, do you?”
“I had a job to do and I did it. There isn’t any room for guilt. If you’d given me the information when I asked, I wouldn’t have had to resort to such methods.”
“Oh, so this ismyfault?” My anger was back, reignited by his casual remark.
“I never said that. I was merely pointing out how we ended up here. You were in possession of information I needed. After repeated attempts to get it from you directly, I needed to try another way, which unfortunately involved violating the privacy you’re so concerned with.”
“You forgot about murder! You fucking murdered Jude!”
He clenched his jaw but said nothing.
“So you were, what?” I threw my hands up, trying to sort the questions in my head as they swam around in vodka. “Just going to keep lying to my face? Why not kick me to the curb already? Now that you have the information you were so clearly desperate for, why the fuck am I still here? Figured you’d keep taking advantage of a steady piece of ass while you were at it?”
He put his hands on his hips and expelled a sharp breath, letting his gaze drop to the floor between us. “Anything I say right now would be pointless. You will find fault in the logic or find a way to twist my meaning to suit your anger. Stop looking for reasons to push me away, Marek.” He looked up for that last part, driving home his fucking patronizing with a scowl that squarely put the blame back on me.
“I don’t have to look that fucking hard,” I snapped. “You’re making it crystal clear right now that—”
“That I love you? And that I also have a job to do? Yes. It should be clear. Since I met you, my life has revolved around you. Everything I’ve done is to try and make your life better. Easier. Happier. If I was only after your phone or your ass I would have used you and discarded you within a week of our first meeting. More importantly, I wouldn’t have risked my own neck for you. Over and over again. I’ve lied, threatened, maimed, bribed,andkilled for you—openly, I might add. My entire brigade is going to war with the Neon Kings foryoubecauseIgave the order. They are out there, right now, massacring as many of those bastards as they can find! So you’ll have to forgive me if downloading the contents of your phone without your permission seems like a trivial offense in order to keep you safe!”
I swallowed thickly but the taste of vodka kept burning in the back of my throat, not sure if it wanted to go up or down. “What do you mean you’ve… killed for me? I thought you said Ken was too important to Sergei?”
For the first time in the conversation, a twinge of regret flickered across his face. “He is. It wasn’t him.”
“Alonzo?”
“Not yet.”
“Then who?”
He bit his lower lip and looked away, like he was debating if he was going to fucking lie to my face again. When his gaze finally slid back to me, he answered. “Your mother.”
“Crystal’s dead?” The question was hardly more than a squeak, a puff of air from my lungs.
He nodded mutely.
My attention drifted to the hallway, toward the guest room where the kids were asleep—unaware they were officially orphans.
I didn’t know how to feel.
