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“I need to tell you something as second-in-command. However, before I do, I need you to swear you’ll never repeat it.”
“Swear … how?”
“The Bratva way,” he says. “With blood. I need to know you won’t tell anybody else. I don’t want you caught off guard.”
“Tell me then.”
Dimitri sighs, shaking his head. “I need you to swear first.” When I don’t reply, he goes on, “I know this is a dick move, but we’re talking about the future of our family here.”
“Fine, fuck it.”
Leaving the room, I rush down the hallway, stopping at one study with its tall bookshelves, ornate desk, and sharp letter opener on the side. Before Dimitri can say anything, I make a small cut across my forearm, holding his gaze.
“I swear, brother, I won’t repeat a word. Now get on with it.”
He nods, dropping into an armchair. “I want to make Nikolai angry at the meal, so he’s not thinking straight, and … there’s something else. I want to make a statement. I’m going to walk into the party with Lia on my arm. Then I’ll tell Nikolai that Mila will be my wife, butLiais my woman. I need to humiliate him, push him, and make it so he doesn’t see the revenge coming.”
I grind my teeth, my arm pulsing.
“Why did you make me swear before telling me this?”
“Lia thinks something might be going on with you and Mila.”
“Oh yeah?” I say, keeping my tone neutral. “What do you think about that?”
Dimitri tilts his head. “I don’t see it. You’ve seen how I am around Lia, right? I can’t contain it. You couldn’t hide it if you felt the same about Mila as I do about Lia.”
But my brother’s wrong. I’ve spent years hiding the deepest, darkest parts of myself, the Bratva berserker lurking beneath the coder façade.
“I know you’ve been working together, though,” Dimitri continues. “I’m sure most of what you talk about is programming stuff, but I had to make you swear, just in case.”
I nod, saying nothing, giving nothing away. He’s just put me in one messed-up spot. Now, I have to hold something back from my woman, dammit.
“Where are you going?” Dimitri asks when I turn for the door.
“To finish my workout.”
“That wasn’t the last set?”
Itwasthe last set, but after this, I need more. I need to burn. Maybe I should just tell Dimitri that Mila belongs to me. Yet what if this falls through, and he still has to marry her for the good of the city, knowing she belongs to me? Would we survive that?
“No,” I grunt and keep walking.
CHAPTER 19
MILA
When I wake up, I see I’ve got two missed video calls from Drake. My head feels groggy, and my mouth is dry. The room is dark, and the sun is setting, making me feel disoriented as I swipe up on my phone and call Drake back. As the call rings, I reach for the bedside table, where a glass of water awaits me. There’s a note, too.
I’ll be in the computer room when you wake up, beautiful.
A smile spreads my lips widely across my face, but when Drake answers the phone, the smile drops away, and I suddenly feel dead inside. Drake looks terrified, almost shell-shocked, like he’s on the verge of a breakdown.
“Drake?” I say, my voice breaking as I lean forward to get a better look at him. “Are you okay?”
“Dad went nuts earlier,” he says quietly. It’s his matter-of-fact tone that hurts me the most. “He was talking about this party, this pledge thing …” Drake shivers, then runs a hand through hishair in a world-weary way no ten-year-old should ever have to. “He said if it goes bad …”
“What?” I ask.
