Page 217 of Bona Fide

“So we kept her.” Marty shrugs then squints his eyes at me. “But that was before I knew you were involved with my sister. Then Demi did what we wanted her to do—she fucked up.”

“She was working with the Russian I was telling you about, Nikolai Bogdanov,” Em adds in.

“And I confirmed that she was pregnant with his baby. She was going to have you killed then go off to live as some beloved American turned spy while having Nikolai’s child.” Marty shakes his head. “He’d have her killed within a year.”

“How did you do it?” I press. Marty isn’t concerned with my question as much as his sister. He’s watching her, studying her reaction before he responds.

“Torture, then we staged it look like she died in a car accident.”

“It’s all over the news.” Emmy grips the back of Mart’s chair. “You need to make a statement tomorrow.”

“How much did she see?” I nod towards Reagan. “What of this gunman Em was talking about?”

Marty snaps his focus back to me. “She saw enough. And the gunman was someone your wife must’ve blackmailed or had on the inside. I didn’t ask questions, he was dead on the floor the moment he pointed that gun at my sister.”

“Out.” My tone is on the brink of hysteria, and Em doesn’t argue, urging Marty to follow, who doesn’t.

“You’re not going to fill my sister with hope,” he sneers before his lips twitch. “Because your wife is—” He stops because Reagan is sending a dark glare at him right now. “You have only five minutes, Tsarina, then we’re leaving.”

She doesn’t respond, and he doesn’t wait for her to, following Em out of the room and allowing me time to really find out what the fuck is going on.

I can’t process Demi right now, not when I know something is wrong with Reagan, and she’s my priority.

Always has been, always will be.

Hunching down, I turn my chair so that her body is facing me. I spread her legs so that my body can fit in between them, and I peer up at her. She takes another sip of her whiskey, averting her gaze as it promptly falls to her lap.

“You’re lying,” I insert. “You’re not okay. Something happened, you’re in shock.”

“I’m safe,” she replies. “And you’re safe, that’s all that matters.”

My hands give her thighs a little squeeze, remembering her jeans are soaking wet. “You need to change, you’re going to get sick.”

“It’s not cold outside.”

“Doesn’t make me feel any better.” She bites the inside of her lower lip, attempting to hold on to her composure. “Erase everything, Sox. Every fucking thing...even me.”

Her lavender eyes meet mine. “I’d never do that.”

“You have to or you’re going to have one hell of a time.”

She gives a weak lift of her shoulders. “I’ll get over it.”

“Reagan,” I soothe, caressing the sides of her knees with my thumbs. “You need to get far away. A fresh start, baby, you need to leave all this behind.” Her eyes harden, followed by her lips setting into a fine line.

I’m ordering her around like her brother just did, and I’m sure she had to swallow a lot of responses with him, but she’ll have no problem letting me have it.

I deserve it—all of it.

“Don’t start,” she bristles in her chair. “Not you too.”

“I’m just trying—”

“To protect me. Just like I am with you.”

My brows furrow. “What do you mean?” She attempts to turn away from me, but I grasp her jaw and straighten it to have her look at me. “What did you do?”

She bites down harder on her lip, tears glimmer in her eyes, and she breaks out in a sob.

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