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Apparently, I chose wrong.
“Where is she?”
“Safe,” he promises. “She made me promise not to hurt you. It seems you told her some pretty horrendous things about me.”
“None of them were lies.”
“How do you know?” he asks, sitting upright. “You’re only repeating what my cousin has told you. What makes you think you can trust him?”
“Because I know him.”
He raises one eyebrow. I hate how it looks so similar to when Kolya does it, and yet so wrong at the same time. It’s a familiar gesture in an unfamiliar face, and the effect is physically repulsive.
“Do you now?” he asks rhetorically. “It’s funny—I convinced your sister that you were hoodwinked by Kolya’s charms. I convinced her that you were brainwashed. How ironic to find that I wasn’t lying?”
I shake my head. “It’s just like an arrogant man like you to assume that a woman doesn’t have opinions on her own. I can make up my own mind about people, Ravil. You’re just pissed off I didn’t settle in your favor.”
“So you went along with the whole fake baby plan because… why, exactly?” he asks. “Because you loved him?”
My hand lands protectively across my belly. “It’s not a fake baby.”
“It might as well be. Adrian’s child is of no value to me.”
I shudder a little at the implication. The way an unborn baby’s life can be reduced to just an asset or a liability. He notices my disgust and his smile becomes wolfish. Then his eyes flatten with anger, and I realize that I’d prefer an actual wolf.
“You have made me a fool,” he growls. “You and Kolya both. I believed the bullshit fable you peddled and now, my men do, too. If I were to reveal the truth, they would believe it was a self-serving lie.”
“They would also think less of you for being fooled in the first place,” I point out before I can think better of it.
He pulls back his lips to reveal his sharp teeth. “That, too. Which leaves me with only one option.”
My hair stands on end and my breath hitches in my throat. I could’ve kept my mouth shut, but what would that have done? Only delayed the inevitable for a few seconds more.
“You’re going to kill me,” I guess.
Ravil recoils like I spat in his face. “Kill you? Of course not! Killing‘krovis a grave sin in the Bratva.”
I roll my eyes. “Right, because it’s so hunky-fucking-dory in the real world.”
He shakes his head sadly. “Kolya learned that to his detriment. And since I don’t plan on repeating his mistakes, I’m not going to kill you.” He pauses before he breathes, smirks, and says, “You’re going to kill yourself.”
51
KOLYA
“Sir?”
I glance at Knox. “Ready. Aim.”
A hundred guns cock in unison. It’s a ruthless announcement of our arrival, but I haven’t come here to play diplomat.
Then I drop my hand and say the word that seals Ravil’s fate.
“Fire.”
All hell breaks loose. I pull back, surveying the chaos so that I’m better prepared for Ravil’s defensive.
As I suspected, Ravil’s home is fortified, but his men are unprepared for our visit. This mansion was purchased recently and deeded under an alias. There’s no way I would have known about it unless I’d done a deep dive into his dealings the past several months.
