Page 137 of Cashmere Cruelty

“You didn’t pick up,” she croaks. “I called you, and you didn’t pick up.”

Not for the first time tonight, I wish I could kill Vlad with my bare hands. “I’m sorry,” I say. I’m not used to these two words; they feel strange, foreign. “Bastard made me switch my phones off.”

“You promised,” April chokes, tears blinking from the corners of her eyes. “You promised you’d always answer?—”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“You lied to me. You broke a rule.”

“I’m sorry.”

I pull her close. As she sobs into my chest, I check her from head to toe. She wasn’t lying—she really isn’t hurt.

She’s safe. The baby’s safe, too.

So I turn to the person responsible for this. The person who protected her when I couldn’t. “Petra.”

She stops her conversation with Yuri and glances over at me. “Yes?”

“I…Blyat’.Thank you.”

Petra stares at me like I’ve gone insane. Like she just ate a lemon and it had cayenne peppers in it. I’ve never seen my fiancé flustered, but there’s nothing else this could be.

Leave it to April to melt the Snow Queen.

“I’m going,” Petra blurts out. “Since you’re back and all.”

I nod. “I’ll take it from here.”

April peeks out from my chest. “You’re leaving?”

She’s sniffling like a little kid. Just what happened between these two while I was away?

“Yeah.” Petra shifts from foot to foot, unsure what to say. “Let’s… get a raincheck. On girls’ night.”

That seems to brighten April up. “Okay,” she hiccups. “I’ll stock the pantry.”

“Please do,” Julia pipes up.

“More of those chocolate chip ones,” Lena suggests.

“Alright.” April smiles. “It’s a date.”

Then Petra turns on her heels and practically runs out the door, face red.

“I’ll see them out,” Yuri adds in a rush.

I nod. “Grisha, you go, too. Check the perimeter. Make sure no one’s loitering.”

With a bow, Grisha obeys.

Then it’s just the two of us.

My thoughts are a mess. I feel like I’m being torn apart. Thepakhanin me is roaring at the idea of his territory being invaded. And the man?—

The man can’t stop looking at April.

“I never should have missed dinner,” I tell her. “I should have been here.”

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