Page 136 of Cruel Honor

I collapse onto the bed from the sudden wooziness that hits me.

“Evie,” Dimitri says, hurrying to my side. “You got shot. Come on. Let’s get you to Dr. Wilson.” He scoops me up into his arms.

“I can walk, you know.”

“I don’t care.” He turns to Katya. “Are you hurt?”

“No,” she whispers.

“Good. Then let’s go.”

Dimitri steps over Juno’s body without giving her a second glance. But I watch her as we leave. My stepmom. The mom I could’ve had, but she was never able to give me that.

“Katya, call my cleanup crew,” he advises, eyeing the dead security guard in the hallway. “I don’t want the police coming here. I don’t want either of you to get into trouble.”

“On it.” She sends off a text. “I let them know.”

Dimitri takes the stairwell—fewer eyes than the elevators—and carries me out the back door of the hotel. The front lobby is too packed. Too many people, too many questions.

We make it to his car without any problems, and then Dimitri speeds right over to Dr. Wilson’s clinic. The receptionist doesn’t look surprised to see us and motions us on through to see the doctor.

“Back again, I see,” he comments as Dimitri places me on the exam table.

“Just fix her up,” Dimitri snaps.

It doesn’t take long for the doctor to stitch up my wound. Fortunately, the bullet went right through. “You’re going to have some lack of mobility in your arm for a while, but with physical therapy, it should return.”

“Thank you,” I tell him.

“I’m just glad it wasn’t worse,” Dimitri says. “I’m just glad Abram is dead and dealt with. But now, I still have to go deal with his followers.”

“So, this isn’t over yet?” I ask, feeling dread seep into my stomach.

Dimitri kisses the top of my head. “It will be. I promise.”

I believe him. Because when Dimitri says he’ll be there, he always is. He hasn’t let me down once.

Dimitri takes Katya and me to stay in a different hotel while he finishes cleaning up his mess.

I have the urge to tell him I love him, but he leaves before I get the chance to say anything.

Katya sinks onto the bed and begins to cry.

“Katya?”

“You almost died,” she says, covering her face. “You could have died, and it would have been my fault.”

“What? No!” I sit down next to her and wrap her in my arms. Katya clings to me. “Why would you even say that?”

“Because I had so many chances to shoot Abram, and I didn’t take it. I was afraid. I’ve never been that afraid in my life.”

“Not wanting to shoot someone to kill them doesn’t make you a bad person. It makes you human. I never wanted to kill Tatiana, but I accidently did. I never meant to kill Dima, but I had to. This world of the Bratva changes people. It’s changed me.”

“But I grew up in it. I should be the one not afraid of death, not you.”

“That’s because your life hasn’t changed. At least not yet. Whereas my life looks nothing like it used to be. I learned that my best friend was born into the Russian Mafia. I was hunted down by madmen. I found the love of my life. I had to change to survive. You didn’t.”

“What if I have to change someday? I don’t want that, Evie. I like my little sheltered life.”

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