Page 26 of Cruel Honor

“You know who I am.”

“I do,” she mutters, crossing her arms.

“You know I get what I want in life.”

“Ugh. I do.”

“And right now, what I want is Evie.”

“But what happens when you get bored of her? When you find a new women to spend your days with? You can’t do that to her. Not to Evie.”

The two siblings look at each other for a long moment, silently communicating.

Dimitri finally speaks. “I wouldn’t do that to her. I know the consequences of a marriage.”

“Do you? Because you fucked Tatiana without worrying about the consequences, and now, Abram has declared war on us!”

“But I was never married to Tatiana. I’ll take a marriage seriously.”

“Will you?”

He sighs. “Yes. I’m not a total colossal asshole.”

“You sure about that?” she asks.

The two of them share a small smile. Oh, no. I feel like I’m losing this battle.

“Can we talk about this?” I ask.

Before either can respond, the doorbell rings. Dimitri answers it, and there’s Juno. The sight of her shocks me to the core.

“What are you doing here?” I ask.

“I couldn’t just let some big scary man steal you away.”

“Like you care,” Katya snaps.

Juno glares at her. They’ve never gotten along. All the times Katya came over to my house, she and Juno would always get into a battle of wills.

“You need to leave,” Dimitri tells her.

“That’s my daughter! I have a right to be here.”

“Stepdaughter,” Katya and I say at the same time.

Juno rolls her eyes. “Yes, well, doesn’t defeat the point that I’m still responsible for Evie.”

Dimitri turns to me. “Do you want her here?” It’s kind that Dimitri asks me that, but… he’s also trying to force me into marrying him. He’s not a truly kind man.

“I—” I start to say …

… right as Abram appears behind Juno.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Dimitri asks.

Abram doesn’t respond as he lifts a gun.

Juno squeaks when she sees it and dives into the house. Everything else goes silent and still.

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