Page 34 of Ivory Oath

“After tossing her under the bus yourself.” The look I fix him with must look as lethal as it feels, because he holds up his hands in surrender. “I’m just playing devil’s advocate over here, brother.”

“How about you play the role of pretending like you’re on my side?”

“I’m always on your side, but my job is to argue with you when I think you’re making a mistake.”

“What mistake? I haven’t done anything wrong.”

Anatoly leans forward, elbows on his knees. “Tell me right now why you saved Viviana today.”

“Because Trofim is a monster.”

He circles a finger in the air to tell me to keep going.

“And she’s the mother of my son,” I add with a shrug. “Because I felt responsible for her.”

“Why?”

“She’s my wife.”

“You were supposed to marry another woman six hours ago,” he argues. “That’s not a very compelling reason. Try again.”

“You’re the worst therapist I’ve ever had.”

“You’ve never had a therapist. And I don’t need to be a therapist to see what’s going on here.”

“I know you don’t, because I already told you: Viviana is my wife and I couldn’t let her marry Trofim and be tortured for the rest of her life.”

“Why?” he asks again. Anatoly has the nerve to look frustrated with me, as if I don’t want to lunge across this room and wring his neck. He sounds like Viviana in the hospital room.

I’m not used to people questioning my decisions. I don’t even question them. My gut instinct is always, always right.

“Why?” he asks a third time, eyebrows raised.

“Because it would have been wrong.”

He clicks his tongue in disappointment. “Why did you skip your wedding to Helen and risk your own life to save Viviana? Why did you care that she was imprisoned by Trofim? Why are you pacing around this room now, preoccupied about what she wants, when we are going to have the entire Drakos family beating down our door by dinner? Why?”

“Because I love her!” I yell. “Is that what you want to fucking hear?”

A smirk the likes of which I’ve never seen before spreads across my brother’s face. He leans back on the couch, hands folded behind his head. “Actually, it is. That is exactly what I wanted to hear, Mikhail. Thank you.”

Regret settles in immediately. Fuck only knows what Anatoly is going to do with this information in his back pocket. Nothing good, I’m sure.

I finally drop down into my chair, feeling more drained than I have in years. I can’t remember the last time I slept through the night. I actually can’t remember the last time I slept. Period.

“None of it matters anyway. It doesn’t change anything. Viviana doesn’t care.”

Anatoly whistles. “Things really have gone topsy-turvy if even Mikhail Novikov has lost his mojo.”

I roll my eyes. “I haven’t lost anything.”

“Okay, then buck up and show her exactly how much you care.”

“I already showed her. I showed her by rescuing her,” I point out. “As much as I’d love to make a slideshow of all the men I killed today to rescue her, Raoul is currently burning their bodies.”

“Charming,” Anatoly snorts. “I was thinking more along the lines of a nice apology. Maybe a heartfelt confession. You can toss in some flowers and chocolates if you want to get really stereotypical.”

My face twists in disgust before I can stop myself. “I’ve done more than enough to show her how I feel.”

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