Page 74 of The Bratva's Nanny

I yanked her, drawing her closer. Close enough to see the mix of hurt and fear in her eyes. “The only person in this room that can give orders here is me. Let that fucking sink in.”

I shook her, watched her tremble violently in fear, and ignored the tears that quickly formed in her eyes. “Now, you’ll fucking answer me. I was informed that you stopped by a café. Who did you go to meet?”

She didn’t say anything, and I shook her again, more violently.

“You will not fucking lie to me, Maria. Do you hear me? Who the fuck did you go to meet?” I growled, my grip tightening.

She winced in pain but still refused to speak. With a snarl, I pulled her closer, our faces inches apart. My chest ached, and my breathing felt labored, like I’d been punched in the fucking gut.

Looking at her, my insides twisted and tangled, and there was a constant nagging that echoed through my mind: She betrayed you, Roman. She doesn’t trust you enough to tell the truth.

I wanted to hurt her in the best ways I knew how but couldn’t bring myself to do anything.

“If you don’t speak up, I’m going to—”

Before I finished my sentence, she pulled out her phone from her pocket and pressed play, lifting up the speaker, so I heard every word.

A man’s voice echoed through the room, and I instantly recognized it.

The bastard himself.

Finn Jameson.

“As much as I’d love it to be, it’s neither a million dollars nor eating Roman Varkov’s juicy leftovers…I want the girl.”

When my eyes met hers, she looked away. Ashamed, embarrassed, but mostly apologetic.

“No, not Polly. She can’t be harmed, Finn. I won’t let that happen.”

“No harm will come to her. I promise. My boss wants her alive.”

“Why does your boss want her?”

“I’ll text you the details.”

My grip on her wrist loosened, and she stumbled backward. With sad eyes and quivering lips, she walked back to me, trying to make me look at her.

“You do realize I don’t regret doing any of that, right?”

My eyes dipped, my anger still roiling beneath my skin. “You should have come to me, Maria. You didn’t trust me enough.”

“Trust?” She choked on a sob and reached for my cheeks. I backed away, and visible pain settled in her eyes. “Roman, this is not about trust. Don’t you see? I had to do it that way to keep him unsuspecting. We obviously needed more details, something more tangible to pin Finn down.”

“And you decided to be Wonder Woman.”

She reached for my arm, and I took steps further away, retreating to my chair behind the desk. “Please, don’t be like this. I wasn’t trying to play hero. I was thinking about Polina….”

And I wanted to yell, “But you didn’t think about me!”

She didn’t think about how I would feel when I learned she changed routes. First, I’d been concerned for her safety. Maria didn’t have family we knew of, and her social circle had more children than adults.

Then, I’d been mad. My mind has spiraled with different scenarios, different possible thoughts.

Maybe it was another man.

Or maybe, all this fucking time, she’d fucking outsmarted me. She could have been a spy, the very fucking mole under my own roof, putting my daughter in danger and pretending all along to love her.

In this world of mine, those were high possibilities.

---