Page 185 of Cashmere Ruin

April’s response is the last thing I expect. “He’s what?” she stammers. “No, Matvey, you can’t.”

I frown. “Can’t what?”

“Don’t let him gather thevory,” she rushes to say. “Yuri and Carmine aren’t working alone. Someone else is in on it!”

Her words turn me to stone.

Someone else.

Another betrayal.

Possibilities flash through my mind. Where is the kiss of Judas going to come from next?

Grisha and his loyalty?

Petra and her grief?

Before I can go any further, April answers the question for me. “It’s?—”

A name slips out of her lips. One name, and then the line is brutally cut, the sound of crushed circuits echoing in my ear.

I can’t even be properly furious about that—the fact that they discovered her, that she must be in danger right now—because the name she gave me demands my immediate attention.

Because the owner of that name is right in front of me.

I reach for my gun, but another one’s safety clicks off before I can draw. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you, son.”

55

MATVEY

It happens in an instant: one second, I’m on the phone with April, and the next…

The next, Vladimir Solovyov is pointing a gun at my head.

“So it was you.”

“Of course it was me,” he spits. “You didn’t think I’d let you live after what you’ve done, did you?”

Blyat’.I’ve been a fool until the end. Again, the answer was right in front of me.

Why did I cross Vlad out of my list of suspects? Why did I think he had nothing to do with this? Who did I send to spy on him in the first place?

Yuri.

Once more, my subconscious betrayed me. Because, even after he stabbed me in the back…

Part of me still trusted the man he was.

“Even the most loyal dog will bite if backed into a corner.”

Why the fuck can’t I remember my answer?

“Dad…?” Petra murmurs. “What are you…?”

“Stay back,” he barks at her. “I told you this was no place for you.”

“You were planning this?” she asks. “All along, you’ve been planning this?”

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