Page 77 of Savage Little Lies

I lift my eyebrow at her. “Aside from paying you one hundred thousand dollars?”

Cara nods as a serious expression settles on her face. “That offer is only good if you call off the marriage. Not just the wedding. The whole…arrangement with Annika.”

Even if they put up frustrating roadblocks for me, I can admire that she at least tries to stick to her morals.

“That’s important to you, isn’t it?” I say, able to sense the tension gripping her body. She’s on edge, waiting for my answer. Hoping that I’ll say what she wants to hear.

“It is,” Cara tells me. “I can’t spend the night with someone who is taken.”

The side of my mouth crooks up, and I actually feel proud for putting my foot down and calling off the marriage.

“You’re asking me to burn the bridge completely,” I say as I slip my wrist out of her grip and grab her hand instead to coax her closer. “It went up in flames last night.”

Cara’s brow furrows in confusion. “What do you mean?”

I move her hand to rest on the back of my neck, making her chest press against mine as the space between us grows smaller. She won’t believe what I’ve done. I can hardly believe it myself.

Artur’s threat echoes in my head.

You’ll never be named Pakhan now.

I still don’t care.

“Annika and I are over,” I tell Cara. “The marriage is off.”

29

Cara

Holy shit.

I can’t believe it. Dmitri actually did it.

Or…did I?

“Wait. Why?” I shake my head. “I thought…I’m confused,” I tell Dmitri, stumbling over my own words as I try to process what he just said.

Dmitri hooks his arm around my back, holding me close to him as our faces linger so close together. “I told you that I didn’t want her.”

I’ve seen the quiet agony in his voice and the weight of defeat on his shoulders when he talked about Annika. Marrying her would’ve turned him into a shell of the man he is now.

“What about your family? And hers? You just… blew up an alliance?” I ask him, needing him to paint a full picture for me. I shouldn’t even give a damn now that my mission is accomplished, but there’s a part of me that needs to know.

What truly pushed him to do something so drastic?

Dmitri shakes his head. “Artur isn’t happy, but I don’t care. I couldn’t go through with it. An alliance with him can’t possibly be worth it to me in the long run.”

“Does Annika know yet?” I ask, already picturing her tantrum in my head. She’s the type to lash out when she doesn’t get what she wants, so he might want to watch his back for a few months.

Unless Annika’s father gets to him first.

Oh God. What if I just signed his death warrant?

“I blocked her number and my men know she’s not welcome at the office or my penthouse,” Dmitri says, not seeming wary or bothered in the slightest. Honestly, he seems relieved.

I breathe in slowly, my mind becoming a whirlwind of conflicting thoughts. Now that I’ve done my job, I should leave and make sure that my father never finds me again. I should be throwing my hands up in victory.

But I can’t do any of those things right now.