Page 181 of Deceitful Vows

I lean in close when a faint roar sounds from the speaker of Mikhail’s phone. It’s soft but undeniable. Andrik is chastising himself. If the faucet shutting off seconds into the footage is anything to go by, it was seconds before I lost my dinner in the downstairs bathroom.

I refuse to let my heart get ahead of itself, though. “Maybe he was angry his only source of relief was his hand.”

Mikhail laughs.

He. Fucking. Laughs.

Asshole.

“Mikhail—”

“Don’t Mikhail me. I’ve waited years for this. Let me relish it for a couple of seconds.” He sees I’m confused but does nothing to alleviate it. “Come on.” He nudges his head to the hanging-open car door. “I’ll fill you in on everything I know during the drive home.”

I hate how stubborn I am, but it isn’t solely my wants I need to consider now. “I don’t think?—”

“If you want answers, Sunshine, you need to trust me.” He twists around to face me, flashing both his dimples and his kind eyes. “You trust me, right?”

I shouldn’t, but I nod.

He grins at my grumble as I slowly trudge toward his SUV.

I’m bombarded for the second time three steps later.

Mara looks as if she’s seen a ghost, but her focus is on me instead of Mikhail.

“Your fr-friend works at Myasnikov Private Hospital, right?”

I nod, too panicked by the worry in her tone for a worded response or to chastise her for walking the streets alone this late. It is almost dawn.

“What does s-she look like?”

“Brown hair, around this tall.”

I hold my hand an inch above my head as Mikhail thrusts his phone into Mara’s face. “Like this.”

“Th-that’s her,” Mara shouts, her voice bellowing through the alleyway. “I saw her earlier. She was at our bus s-stop, dazed and confused.” My heart pains for her when she says, “I was hesitant to help because of the r-ruse they’d pull.” The person who assaulted Mara months ago used theI’m-hurtruse. As she bobbed down to help him, he launched upward with his fists. “She wasn’t well. I-I think she was drugged. I tr-tried to call you, but I don’t have your number.”

“I don’t have my phone on me anyway,” I blurt out, unsure what to do.

“How long ago was this?” Mikhail asks.

Mara checks her watch. It isn’t as fancy or as expensive as Mikhail’s. “Around tw-two hours ago. Maybe a little longer.”

When my eyes shoot to Mikhail, panting and desperate, he nods like he knows exactly what we need to do. “Get in.”

His demand isn’t just for me. It is for Mara as well.

“It’s okay, Mara,” I assure her, feeling her scared shakes from here. “You can trust him. He’s one of the rare good ones.”

“When you can, tell him I’ve got her, but that we need to take a quick detour,” Mikhail murmurs as he opens the back passenger door of the SUV for Mara. “That’s good. I’ll tell her.” As he jogs to the driver’s side, he removes a bead-like device from his ear. “Zak’s surgery was a success. His body seems to be accepting his new heart.”

I sigh in relief. “That’s great. I’m so glad.”

“Di-did you say he got a new heart?”

After instructing Mikhail to go around the hospital’s perimeter that makes traffic shit no matter the hour, I twist to face Mara. “Yeah. Zakhar has a hereditary heart condition. He’s been in cognitive heart failure for the past twelve months.”

I’m truly stoked for Andrik and Zakhar, but I can’t fully express my feelings until I know that Nikita is okay. Mara made it seem as if she was found at our bus stop, which makes no sense. Maksim would never let her visit that side of town unaccompanied, and why would she be at a bus stop?

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