Page 59 of Caught By the Bratva Beast

“And leave behind the only family I have?” Her voice cracks as she throws herself at me again, careful not to hurt me as she hauls me into another tight hug.

When she pulls back, there's apprehension on her face. She looks like she's trying to find a way to put as much distance between us as possible without actually getting off the bed.

Finally, she settles with standing, moving to the foot of the bed, gripping the rail like it's the only thing keeping her upright now.

“I've already lost my family once.” She takes a moment to clear her throat, looking up to the fluorescent lights to stop the tears. “I saw you lying there on the ground, and I knew I had to do something, so I took your gun. He was going to kill you if I didn't kill him. You're all I have, Maxim. And I know that this isn't the relationship either of us thought it would be. But I couldn't live with myself if anything happened to you.”

“Come here,” I say, opening my arms, keeping my voice soft and gentle.

Instead of coming to me as I expect, Pearl takes a step back, wringing her hands in front of her. “No, there's still more I have to tell you. Things I should have told you a long time ago.”

“You can tell me anything, just come here. I thought I was going to lose you too. Right now, I need you.”

“I can't.” Pearl paces back and forth at the foot of the bed for so long that I'm sure she's going to wear a hole through the ground and fall right through to the floor below us.

Since she won't come to me, I get out of bed going to her and wrapping my arms tight around her. I pepper kisses along side of her face in her neck trying to calm her down as whatever storm she's got going on rages inside her.

If any of my cousins were to see me right now, they would tell me that I was whipped.

They wouldn’t be wrong.

“Everything's going to be okay. You can tell me what's going on. I fix problems for a living Pearl.”

She nods, her arms looping around my waist, holding on to me. “I should have told you a long time ago who my father is. Aaron Miller. He was murdered in cold blood, and I found his dead body. I was fifteen at the time and we had been fighting more than usual. To be honest, I can't remember a day when I wasn't fighting with him. I was an asshole as a teenager, and I took it out on him.”

“You don't blame yourself for your father's death, do you? You know that wasn't your fault, right?”

“I don’t know how you can say that when you haven't even heard the story.”

“I can see it in your eyes that you're blaming yourself and you shouldn't. If you weren’t the one who pulled the trigger or ordered the trigger to be pulled, then you’re not the reason he died. Do you understand me?”

“What if I had just skipped school like I planned and come home earlier in the day? I thought that the two of us should talk. If I had been an hour or two earlier, he might still be alive right now.”

“You’re going to make yourself sick considering all the what-ifs,” I say, my tone stern as I try to banish any doubt from her mind.

I’ve seen a lot of people lose themselves to what they attribute as the first death they’re responsible for. Some people never recover from it.

Pearl is stronger than all of those people though. She’s been through hell and she’s still standing here in front of me. She’s holding her head high and telling me the truth, even when she’s not entirely sure she can trust me.

It speaks volumes about the kind of woman she is.

“Maybe I think that things would have happened a different way if we hadn't been fighting, but I know that he was murdered in cold blood. It took some time to accept. I still carry a lot of guilt. But I carry a lot of anger too.”

I pull back enough to cut her face in my hands, looking down at her as I swipe the tears from beneath her dark eyelashes. “Who killed him?”

Her gaze hardens as she looks up at me. “That's what I want you to find out.”

Chapter 22 - Pearl

It's been two days since we returned home from the hospital, and I still can't figure out why I saved back some more love.

Although perhaps that's just part of me pretending that I don't know why. After this long, he's become like family.

No, the real question is why? Why did I let him pass my defenses when I know who he is and what he's done? Why did I allow him to give me those stupid butterflies in my stomach in that racing heart? And those countless orgasms.

I should've cut and run once those feelings started rearing their ugly heads, showing the first signs of falling for the monster.

I've known for a while now that killing him would have been impossible. I glance over my shoulder in the window. Maxim is still sprawled out on our bed, the sheets half around his waist, his torso naked as he sleeps.

---