Page 137 of Cruel Honor

“I thought you hated it.”

“That was before Abram kept trying to kill us. Now, all I want is to snuggle under the covers and watchThe Bachelor.”

“I want that, too. But that’s one thing I learned. We don’t always get what we want, but we make the most out of it. I found love with Dimitri when I didn’t think I ever could. You don’t want a sheltered life, Katya. Not really.”

“How do you know? Can you read my mind?”

“Because I know you. And I know you’ll never be satisfied in life until you have your freedom. I’m here, and I always will be. But I want you to know you don’t have to feel bad about what we went through today. You saved my life. You found the courage to shoot Abram before he could kill me. Dimitri didn’t save me today. You did.”

Slowly, a smile appears on her face. “So, you’re saying I’m better than my brother?”

“Always.”

That gets a laugh out of her, and she tugs me in closer to her. “Come on. Let’s watch moreBachelor. I just want to put Abram from my mind, and I want to do that with my best friend.”

“I want that, too.”

DIMITRI

Nik and Maxim join me at the warehouse of the emergency meeting we all called. All our closest followers are here, including Abram’s men.

They don’t know he’s dead yet. They don’t know that all their lives are about to change.

“What are we doing here?” Sergei, one of Abram’s most trusted advisers, asks.

The room is filled with at least fifty men. It stinks of sweat and body odor and really bad cologne. I know I don’t smell. My cologne game is always on point. I blame it on Abram’s men and none on mine.

“You’re all here so we can talk about the changes that are going to occur.” I can feel Nik and Maxim behind me. Supporting me. After how I treated them in the past, the fact they’re still helping me is a miracle. I need to learn to be less of an asshole toward them.

Only less, though. I can’t promise to never be an asshole again.

“What changes?” Sergei grumbles.

“Abram Sokolov is dead. Which means if any of his followers are thinking about an uprising, I would squash those ideas right now.”

Murmurs fills the room.

“Quiet,” Nik snaps, making them all fall silent. That’s the one nice thing about Nikolai. He’s a scary motherfucker.

“Abram believed in purity for Bratva daughters. Now, I’m not saying you can never have a virgin for a wife. You can. But if a Bratva daughter happens to not be a virgin, that shouldn’t stop anyone from marrying her. No wars will be fought over any woman’s virginity any longer. Is that understood? If your daughter fucks a man before marriage, then just get over it. No more in fighting. We need to presentas a united front from any outsiders. I’m tired of fucking fighting. Aren’t all of you?”

A lot of the men nod.

“I know I am,” one man says. Many of them agree with him.

Except for Sergei, of course.

“I can’t just stand by and listen to you talk after you killed my boss.”

I walk through the crowd of men and stand before Sergei. “If you don’t get in line right now, I’m putting a bullet through your head.”

“Then put a bullet through my head.”

I shrug. “Fine by me.” I lift my gun and fire. His blood splatters on the man behind him, who shouts. Sergei falls to the floor, dead.

“Anyone else want to argue with me?” I ask, turning around in a circle. No one objects. “Good. Now, no more fucking wars, ok? At least not over Bratva woman. It’s cliché, isn’t it? And it only ends up hurting our women. None of us want that, so I say we all call it a day and move on. Abram is dead, and the war ended with him. Let’s leave it there.”

The rest of the men in the room agree with me.

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