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I glance at Mila, sitting there with her hands clasped, her legs jittery, like she wants nothing less than to attend this dinner with her dad. I can’t blame her. If my old man were still around, I wouldn’t want to meet with him either.
“I never said I was in love.”
“Will you deny it, hmm?” Ania teases.
“Focus on your own love lives,” I grunt. “Well, not you, Ania.”
She laughs again in that carefree way she sometimes has. She’s got so much personality, so much to offer.
“You know I’m an adult, right, dear brother?”
“You’re my baby sister, my little ballerina,” I tell her. “It’s hard not to think of you that way. Sorry, kiddo.”
“Oh, now you’re trying to push my buttons,” she says with a big, stuck-in-place smile. “Calling mekiddo…”
“What, you don’t like it?” I smirk.
She rolls her eyes. “Anyway, I don’t have a love life, so who cares? I just want to perform.”
“We’ll see about enrolling you in a ballet school soon,” I tell her.
“Really?” she says excitedly.
I smile. “Really.”
When Lia returns, she sits next to me. I take her hand, and nobody comments. Mikhail lies on the corner couch, not looking at anyone, not even at Mila. If my Lia was sitting there looking like her world was exploding, there’s no damn way I could just lie down, not giving a damn. No way I could ignore her. It seems so damn obvious to me he doesn’t care about her.
Part of me is disappointed. It would be good for Mikhail to find somebody. Maybe it would make a good fit with their shared passion for computers. Yet, looking at them, there’s no way. Even when Mila sniffles and wraps her arms around herself, Mikhail lies there, staring up at the ceiling.
Maybe I don’t know much about love, but I know it’s not that.
CHAPTER 24
DAHLIA
My heart flutters as the limo carries us down the Strip, the lights blinking and glittering against the window in a fascinating, gorgeous interplay. Dimitri smirks and takes my hand, squeezing it warmly. Nerves stir in my belly as I think about the plan and my part in it. He said he had to wait until just before the party to tell me. Otherwise, there was a chance I would tell Mila and a chance Mila would tell her dad.
“I trust you, Lia, but in this life…”
I could tell he felt torn, but I understood. “This life takes no prisoners. Even if the chance was one percent, you couldn’t risk it.”
“You’re not mad?”
“No,”I say, “but for the record, I wouldn’t have said a word.”
Before I could turn away, he grabbed me and pulled me close. “It was wrong. It was paranoid. From now on, no more secrets about anything.”
Now, I try not to crush Dimitri’s hand in mine. I want to appear confident when I make my entrance on his arm. He said the time for hiding is over. We don’t have to pretend anymore. Ania sits next to Mila, gripping her hand tightly. Both of them seem intensely nervous.
“Are you ready?” Dimitri asks me softly.
“Are you sure about this?” I reply.
“Yes.” His voice is stern, the tone of the Bratva king. “No more hiding. No more game playing.”
Mikhail scoffs, “Well, brother, this whole thing is a game.”
“Hmm,” Dimitri grunts.
