Page 104 of The Marriage

Roman couldn’t help but wonder if this was all a trick. If Maxim hadn’t spoken to Demyan, and given him the whole story ... well, most of it—then they wouldn’t even have been here.

Now they had no choice.

The responsibility of ruined Chicago bratva was on them.

“Whatever we decide to do here tonight,” his father told him as their car parked in front of a three-level home that had seen better days despite its grandeur, “we’ll have to do it fast.”

Roman didn’t care. At this point, he just wanted it to be over.

As the Avdonin crew walked into the house, the men who stood watching the front door did so with their weapons hidden from view. There was going to be no war tonight. They even nodded at the New York boss as he passed, though he didn’t make eye contact.

It was over.

Roman was growing more anxious by the minute, his questions about what had happened in this house going unanswered as a woman with a black fur coat draped over her shoulders directed them to an office. The door was already open, and Roman could see who waited within.

“The famous Cherie?” he heard his father ask as Roman met his wife’s gaze inside the room.

“One in the same. I took good care of her, made sure she had everything she needed. No one touched her, of course.”

“Things are starting to make a bit more sense,” Demyan noted.

Roman didn’t hear what they said then because he’d stepped inside the room. A bloody, white dress sat draped over a chair in the corner, and on top of the ruined fabric rested a knife. The dried, brownish stains on the blade and smeared on the dress made Roman hesitate in his step.

He heard Karine’s breath hitch when he stopped. He wondered if it was Cherie that had supplied Karine with the clean, black bodycon dress that showed off her curves and made her seem older—sexy, confident—where she sat waiting at the desk.

“What did you do?” he asked.

It would have been a violent death, and he bet the bandages on her hands and fingers told the tale of just how much. Karine fidgeted with her hands before hiding them under the desk.

She didn’t hesitate to answer him. “Everything I needed to.”

What could he say to that?

He knew she wasn’t wrong.

To send his daughter into the eye of the storm? To face the monster she had been running away from?

Karine slowly stood up.

Roman couldn’t look away from those big eyes of hers, clear like an ocean and dragging him under like waves. “I asked you to trust me.”

“And I did.”

“How can you say that? You didn’t stay—”

“I didn’t want to be there, and this was my one chance,” she told him. “It was the only one I had left to make sure he was gone for good. Me, I did that.”

But it could have killed her.

He bet she took the risk, knowing that.

Roman found that hard to swallow.

Goddamn.

He still loved her for it, though.

“I know this has been a lot,” Karine said suddenly, dropping his gaze.