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“Oh, you do, do you?” I sneered. “Well, seeing as how I’m back and this is my home, I think you need to leave and let me decide what’s enough.”
His back straightened, making our size differences a glaring point. “Until Pakhan instructs me otherwise, I am staying,” he replied. “It is also not your place to judge what is between Masha and I. Your sister is a grown adult.”
That had me seething. “Was she a grown adult when she allowed me to leave with Avgust? Was she a grown adult when I took responsibility for what she witnessed? Was she a grown adult when she didn’t put up much of a fight over me taking her place on the guillotine?”
“I’m sorry,” Masha cried. “I didn’t…I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
I looked back at my sister, and I hated how I understood how loneliness and fear could lead you into the arms of the enemy. However, unlike me and Avgust, Masha didn’t have a past with Gosha. She’d only met him a day or so ago, and she’d wasted no time jumping into his bed. Hell, there hadn’t even been enough time to blame it on Stockholm Syndrome if she’d wanted to.
Just like how she had refused to wait for me to walk home, just like she’d been perfectly fine with always having the car, just like it’d always been about her, this was no different, and I was self-aware enough to recognize that I was partly to blame for her self-centeredness and spoiled behavior. I had coddled her after our parents’ deaths, and it was finally coming back to bite me on the ass.
Shaking my head, I let out a deep, tired, heavy sigh. I’d never felt so exhausted, and I just didn’t want to care anymore. If Masha wanted to screw a bratva soldier, then so be it. If she wasn’t smart enough to see what a huge mistake it was to get involved with them, then that was on her. Like Avgust had pointed out earlier, Masha was thirty, not thirteen. Perhaps it was time that I finally started treating her like it.
“Samara, don’t be mad at me,” Masha pleaded. “Please.”
Though it was unfair, I wanted her to know just how hurt I was. “You know, while you were reaching out for someone to talk to, I almost got raped in that cage because that’s what everyone thought I was in there for.” Her eyes widened, and her face turned white, but I didn’t care. “And when they came to see to my injuries, I begged them not to hurt you. I even stripped off my clothes and promised that I wouldn’t fight them anymore as long as you were safe.” Tears started staining my sister’s pretty face, but I was numb to it. “I hope whatever he’s doing for you, it’s worth it, Masha.”
I turned from her, then headed towards my bedroom. Between her and Avgust, I’d had my fill of hurt feelings, and I just wanted to sleep them away. Since I no longer had a job, there wasn’t any reason that I couldn’t shower, check my wounds, then sleep until I couldn’t anymore.
Shutting the door to my room, I made sure to lock it before heading into the bathroom. There, I stripped myself of Avgust’s clothes, then stepped into the shower-bandages and all-then adjusted the water to as hot as I could stand it. I wanted to burn Avgust’s touch from my skin, and if only I could erase him from my memory, then I would.
I also hated knowing that he wasn’t married. When I’d been under the impression that he’d already had a wife, his refusal to marry me had made sense. However, now that I knew the truth, it hurt more to know that Avgust hadn’t wanted to marry me because he simply hadn’t wanted to. Maksim had asked him if he was going to marry me, and he’d said no as if the very notion had been ridiculous. He had dismissed the suggestion without even giving it some thought. It hurt, and I hated that it hurt. It made me feel weak, and that was a characteristic that I had no respect for. I could understand someone being scared, but weak? Yeah, I’d never been a big fan.
Once the water started running cold, I finally turned it off, then got out of the shower. On autopilot, I dried myself off, checked my wounds, then after wrapping my ankle in some fresh gauze, I walked out of the bathroom, then grabbed a pair of pajamas out of the drawer.
When I finally laid my head on my pillow, I thought about how I was going to have to by a new phone, order a new bank card, and start looking for a job. However, how was I supposed to apply for a job when I was also going to have to order a new driver’s license? Then that train of thought reminded me of how our car was still in the shop. Or was it? Hell, I didn’t even know anymore.
As my eyes began to feel heavy, I wondered if I could get my old job back. Yeah, disappearing without a trace was not going to work in my favor, but I could always skew the truth a bit. I could lie and tell them that I’d been robbed, and that they’d taken my purse with my phone and everything, but that wouldn’t explain why I hadn’t used Masha’s phone to call in, or even stop by in person.
I also started wondering about Gosha. Now that I was back home, was Avgust going to insist that he still be here? Were we going to be under a warden’s watch for the rest of our lives? Was Avgust even aware that Masha and Gosha had crossed a line, or had that been Avgust’s plan all along? My mind was such a mess that I had no idea what was real and what wasn’t anymore. It almost felt as if I no longer even knew who I was.
I ended up falling asleep with that last thought in my head.
Chapter 27
Avgust~
Now, as I’d told Sartori, it wasn’t often that we all assembled in one place, but this was a unique situation. It was also one that I wasn’t inclined to discuss with anyone else. Again, my father might like to act like he had a say in the organization, but he really didn’t.
So, the five of us were all at my place, me, Maksim, Bogdan, Melor, and Akim, and we were here to discuss what Morocco had informed us about last night. We were the only ones in the organization that knew the truth, and I wanted it to stay that way until we found Louie Manziel and/or Klive Simpson, though that wasn’t his real name.
“This is insane,” Akim muttered under his breath. “We have…we have a half-brother?”
“According to Morocco Carrisi, we do,” Maksim replied evenly.
“What? You don’t believe him?” Bogdan asked.
“No, I believe him,” Maksim clarified. “I just don’t want to.”
“We need to find out why he’s here,” Melor chimed in. “Does…could it be that he believes your parents left an inheritance, so he’s wanting his share?”
Maksim shook his head. “Considering how long ago our parents died, if that were the case, then he would have shown up before now.”
“Plus, why make trouble if he’s looking to benefit from an assumed inheritance,” I added. “I agree with the Sartoris that Klive or whatever he’s calling himself is not here for noble reasons.”
“He’s been underfoot for years now,” Bogdan chimed in. “I refuse to believe that he could be in Port Townsend for that long and not know that Maksim and Akim are part of the bratva. Even if he doesn’t know their ranks within the organization, he has to know that it’s suicide to go up against us for any reason.”
I looked over at Maksim. “Is there anything from when your parents were alive that could shed light on why Klive would show up here?”
