Page 47 of Bratva and Betrayal: Kirill

“The Sandrine I remember wanted to be my wife,” he says after a moment. “Accepted this life with me.”

“Please find someone else.”

Pain flashes across his face. “I can’t.”

“Why?”

He looks away, jaw tightening. “You will know why soon enough.”

Unease crawls through me. “Where is my sister?”

“You can see her when she gets here.” His attention snaps back immediately. “Ares and I are not enemies.”

I stare at him.

One dark eyebrow lifts slightly. “Okay, maybe now we are because I took you.” The corner of his mouth almost twitches. “But once you accept your life with me, you can see Lourdes anytime you want.”

“With guards.” I think about all the bodyguards Ares’s has. And Lourdes. The constant hovering she must endure being married to a mafia man.

“Sandrine—”

I shake my head fast enough to regret it when dizziness spikes again. “I don’t know who that is.”

His expression hardens. “You are Sandrine Volkov.”

The name sounds impossible to accept after believing I was Jessica Parker for five years.

Kirill reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out a yellow, folded document. “This is our marriage license.”

He hands it to me. I resist touching it. The look on his face tells me this isn’t a game. So I take it. Throat tight, I open the folds. I’ve not seen a document like this before.

County of Cook

State of Illinois

Kirill Volkov. His age. 31

Sandrine De la Vega. My age. 19

Hereafter known as: Sandrine Volkov

“No signatures?” I ask, looking up at him.

“We signed the application. I can get a copy of that.”

“Please, because this doesn’t prove anything.” I toss it on the bed. “Anyone can print these out.”

Kirill stands so abruptly the movement startles me. Anger rolls off him, and I smell the change on his skin.

“I won’t keep you in a cell. Or in handcuffs,” he says. “But you must stay in this room until you’re stable enough to know the rest.”

My pulse quickens. There’s more? “Rest of what?”

“Moya zhena.” He looks at me. Really looks at me like there is a devastating truth he can’t tell me. “My wife. There is so much more to our story.”

Chapter 14

Kirill