Page 94 of Brutal Vows

“Okay.” I’m not planning to get lost or for anything to go wrong tonight.

We drive into one of the older neighborhoods in Saint Petersburg with its classic architecture, and when we’re a few blocks away, I shoot Luca a look and a nod. “Benedict can let her know we’re almost here.”

“Drive past first. Let’s check out the lay of the land.”

“Okay.”

One more delay, but I get why he is cautious. My arms ache with an emptiness that’s haunted me for months, with a yearning I can’t describe. I just want to hold her, hug her to my heart. Run and hide in that Rapunzel tower where nobody can find her, hurt her, use her.

Luca messages Benedict, who in turn will send Masha the instruction to open for us.

“We’re in her road now,” I say as I turn into the empty street. The first real cold of winter keeps people indoors. It’s dark and miserable with mist floating in from the river. I do not relish going out in weather like this with my baby.

“Is that the one van?” Luca asks as we drive past a black van that doesn’t really fit in the setting unfolding before us.

“Yes.” I don’t look, having spotted it already. Closer to the entrance, there is a similar van, this one white but covered in dirt.

“They’ve been observing her since you left?”

“Yes, pulled up days after I left. First the white one, then the other one stationed here.”

“Hmm. Listening in on her apartment and conversations. They’ll definitely know she’s had a baby.”

“That secret is out now. Irrespective of what Varya told them.”

They’ve tapped into her apartment, through the roof or neighboring apartments, who knows how. It just takes a fake plumber to set this in motion, and Masha chattering away to Zoe in baby talk, plus all the crying going on is a dead giveaway. I swallow at the lump in my throat. Masha has played this game for so long, keeping these devils at our door at arm’s length by pure will and fortitude.

“The question is who do they believe fathered the baby?” I say. “And that’s the cursed center of this whole mess.”

“Does Masha have a partner, a boyfr⁠—?”

“No,” I say, cutting him off, impatient. How long is it going to take for Benedict to reach Masha and for Masha’s response to reach us? “Since her abortion and fallout with the Bratva, she’s been an outcast. Plus…you’ll see why. Whatever you do, don’t stare at her, she hates that.”

In fact, Masha has melted into the background, her whole life seemingly evaporating like water in the summer’s heat. All I have left of my best friend is a shell. A soul trapped in a body she no longer wants.

He turns in his seat to stare at me, upping the tension in the car.

“What aren’t you telling me, Milana?” he asks, his hand on my arm. “You better tell me everything you left out, or else…”

Or else what? I pull off two blocks away from Masha’s apartment and turn off the car. Tremors are running through me, the moment too big.

Dimitri. Annushka. Masha. Chertnikov.

I’m here.

I got what I wanted.

I’m back in Russia. I’ve used my husband in my own despicable way, but when I first formulated this plan, I had no idea what type of man I’d be getting married to. Turns out Luca is the best of men. Easy to trust. Happy to shoulder my burdens and laser-focused on making them go away.

Luca.

The man who held me so tenderly this morning as he caressed my skin. A heavenly way to wake up, like a dream but it’s real. He’s my safe haven, and I want to be his—this man who nobody has ever seemed to love for him alone. He doesn’t allow himself anything, just living for what he needs to do as his brother’s doppelgänger. He doesn’t trust himself to be loved for who he is. Why else would he shatter us apart like he did this morning, with cruel words after what we shared?

Now his thumb caresses my wrist, his touch as gentle as always. I shouldn’t, but I can’t stop comparing Luca with Dimitri. Dimitri with Luca. How the one spun a spider’s web from the outside in, slowly circling around us until we were caught in his web, unaware he was trapping us along the way.

And then there is Luca, not wanting to trap me in any way, instead searching for a way to get Annushka out of Russia, to get us both to freedom.

What else would this man do for me?