Page 115 of Stolen Seconds

“No.” Roman threw the bud on the floor and crushed it beneath his shoe. “You’re not.”

“I have the right to know who I am.”

“The answer is no, Nicolai.”

The air stretched tight as neither one of them backed down from their stance.

“Irina is dead.” Nico’s voice carried a slight strain, and I could see grief coating his brown eyes. “I owe her that much.”

I’d been so caught in my own self-destruction; I didn’t think about how he must’ve felt after that night.

“She’s not dead.” I took another drag, savoring the addictive burn.

They both turned to look at me and their silence was enough for me to know that they didn’t believe me. I could feel their pity radiating toward me with a sickening hold.

They must’ve thought I reached the brink of insanity and fell into a delusional state of mind.

You’re delusional.

I closed my eyes and smiled as Irina’s words pierced my thoughts. It was easy to imagine her staring at me with that same fiery spark she always carried, but it was hard to imagine her gone.

So, fuck them and their pity.

My Irina wasn’t dead and soon, she’d be back in my arms.

I pushed off the car and slipped my sunglasses on. “I’m leaving.”

“Great. Let’s go.” Nico walked toward my car, but hedidn’t get far before Roman grasped him by the neck and pulled him back.

“Go the fuck home.Now.”

Nico shrugged off his hand, the vein in his forehead pulsing from restrained anger.

No matter how difficult or irritating my best friend could be, the little shit Nicolai had never disrespected him.

If anything, this was the closest he’d gotten to doing it.

“Get in the car, Nico.” My patience was running thin, and I didn’t have all day. “Watching this back-and-forth is tiresome.”

After a few tense beats, he rounded the car and sat in the passenger seat, his expression drawn.

The nervous energy Roman exuded put me at unease and I knew he was a second away from becoming manic.

I caught his arm. “He’ll be with me. Besides, I doubt the heir to the Bratva will be in danger.”

“Unless Viktor is six feet deep into the ground, I’m not taking any risks.”

Hot fury scorched through my blood as I thought of Irina’s cousin and how he’d betrayed his own, all for a position that was never his to take.

It would’ve been a courtesy to inform thePakhanthat he had a traitor in his organization of Russian mobsters, but I’d do one better.

Viktor’s blood would be shed but by my hands only.

“I’m sending security with you, after all.” Roman’s voice brought my attention back to him, his dark eyes set on Nico.

As if the tracker he implanted in his ear wasn’t enough.

“Shocker.” I rolled my eyes. “You know he’s not a child, right?”

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