Page 181 of Cashmere Ruin

I join my hands in a prayer position, his phone squeezed between my hands. I kneel, too, thighs pressed together to hide the part that sticks out. “Of course. I won’t move an inch.” Then I give him my best puppy-dog eyes.

Satisfied, the guard leaves the room. The second he’s gone, I slip out the phone and dial.

Time to save my future husband.

He doesn’t answer right away. I listen to the call ring out, head bowed, phone hidden in my hands. For a second, I feel like I’m really praying.

Pick up. Please, pick up.

Please, please, please…

“You have five seconds to tell me who you are, how you got this number, and why I shouldn’t have you killed.”

“Only five seconds for all that?”

“April,” he rasps. “You’re okay.”

“Kind of?” I whisper back. “I’m in mafia jail.”

“In what?” he asks. “Wait—how are you calling me? Where are they keeping you?”

“We don’t have time,” I cut in. “Matvey, it’s Yuri. He’s the mole. He’s working with Carmine, and they…” I swallow. “They have our daughter.”

“I know,” he grits. “I swear to you, April, I won’t let anyone harm either of you. Not Carmine, and not… Not Yuri,” he spits, full of disdain. But I can hear other feelings buried underneath: shock, hurt, betrayal. Sometimes, even thepakhanof the Groza Bratva has no choice but to be human. “He’ll pay for what he’s done. Grisha’s gathering thevoryas we speak.”

I freeze. “He’s what? No, Matvey, you can’t.”

“Can’t what?”

“Don’t let him gather thevory. Yuri and Carmine aren’t working alone. Someone else is in on it! It’s?—”

I manage to blurt out my warning. By a split-second, but I manage.

Then my cage bursts open.

Yuri’s face is a mask of fury as he strides towards me. He yanks the phone out of my grip, not fooled for a second by my efforts to mask it, and throws it violently on the floor. Then, for good measure, he crushes it with his heel.

“I told you not to let her out of your sight,” he barks at the returning guard.

“I—” he babbles, but Yuri cuts him off.

“Give me that.” Without mercy, he swipes the glass of water from his hands. “I take it you were going to use this as a weapon?”

Dammit.Right on the freaking money. “Yuri, please, let’s talk.”

“No.”

He hurls the glass at the opposite wall, missing the guard by a hair’s breadth. It shatters, sending shards flying. “B-Boss, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean?—”

“I don’t give a shit,” he snarls. “You had your orders. You chose to ignore them.”

“She’s sick! She asked for water, she?—”

“She’sdangerous!” he roars back. “She’s ten times smarter than you. Maybe more. So when I say, ‘Don’t go anywhere near her,’ it’s for a good fucking reason.”

Then he takes out his gun.

“Stop!” I cry out. “He didn’t do anything, it was me! I tricked him!”

---