Page 111 of Emerald Malice

“Is she fucking you, too?” he mutters.

If I hadn’t just spent some of my pent-up energy with Natalia, I might’ve knocked him across the room for that. I’ve flayed men alive for saying far less. As it is, I pretend not to have heard him. “The same goes for Leonty. If I find you’ve so much as whispered an insult in his direction, there will be consequences.”

He sags. “Why protect him?”

“Because, like Mila, he’s more valuable to me than you are.”

“He’s nothing more than a vor,” Viktor hisses. “You have plenty more where he came from.”

“He’s a vor with a critical mission. I won’t trust just anyone to protect the mother of my child.”

It’s only when Viktor’s jaw drops that I realize he didn’t even know.

Idiot that he is, he’s paid no attention to the chaos of the last month. I hid nothing—he’s just too stupid to have seen the signs of change coming.

“Fuck.” His eyes dart to the window, through which a sliver of the pool house can be seen. “When did this happen?”

“Probably while you were drunk and balls-deep in a woman who wasn’t your wife.”

Before Viktor can respond, Shura sticks his head in the room. “Everything under control here?”

Viktor storms off, brushing into Shura as he leaves.

“Make sure someone keeps an eye on Viktor,” I order in a weary rasp. “He’s angry; it makes him even dumber than usual.”

“I’ve got you covered,” Shura says. “And if you’re looking for Leonty, he’s in the medical room upstairs. They’re getting him checked out as we speak.”

I make my way there, intent on seeing just how much damage my cowardly brother managed to inflict on our cousin. But before I push the door all the way open, I hear Mila’s voice.

“… already bruising.” I shift forward and can see she’s next to his bed, her fingers tracing along the contours of Leonty’s bruised forehead and swollen jaw.

“I’ll be fine. The bruises are nothing.” He touches her red cheek with the tips of his fingers. “It’s this bruise I’m worried about. I should have killed him.”

“He’s not worth it.”

He drops his head, regret pooling in the corners of his mouth. “Was this? Worth it, I mean?”

“If you’re asking me if you are worth the chaos my marriage is currently in, then yes,” she snaps. “Yes, it most certainly is.”

“I will walk away if that’s what?—”

“It’s not what I want,” she insists. “And fuck you for even suggesting it, Leonty. You are the only thing I want. Viktor’s just gonna have to deal with that.”

“And what about everyone else?” Leonty presses. “What about your father? What if it gets out?—”

“Then it gets out.” Mila grabs his face and rests her forehead against his. “And we endure the consequences.”

Leonty sighs, but there’s no mistaking the proud smile hidden behind his bruises. He leans in to kiss her.

I pull the door closed the rest of the way and walk back downstairs, my head so crowded that it’s almost painful.

What I just witnessed wasn’t a man and a woman entangled in a complicated affair, but a star-crossed couple who are genuinely in love. The same thing is threatening to bloom between myself and Natalia… if only I let it.

But can I? Should I?

When I stand to lose so much more?

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