Page 59 of Savage Surrender

As a member of a rival Mafia family, Viktor was associated with a force that could end my father. If he wanted to prove that he cared about me, if he wanted to stand by this statement that he’d fight for me, for us, then he’d have to show me how.

“Just give me a chance. Come with me, and I will show you that it can be all right. That everything will be okay.”

I stared up at him, wishing it could be that simple. But it wasn’t. “You expect me to be a traitor to my father, to my family.”

He licked his lips and looked off to the side. “I expect you to stay true to yourself. And I know that deep down, you care. You have a good heart, Irina. You proved it when you helped Eva and Lev.”

“No. That was just?—”

“That was what?” he asked. “How can you call yourself loyal to Igor Petrov and your family if you let them get away? How can you stand firm that you’re a Mafia princess and nothing else if you let me in your life?”

“I only helped them because I saw how in love they were. I wanted love to have a chance.”

He stepped closer, flush against me. “What about others in love?”

No. Don’t do this.I couldn’t handle it if he tried to further his deception and tell me that he loved me. I was fighting the realization that I cared for him that much already.

“You lied to me. You tricked me. No love can be founded on that.”

He watched me closely, then smiled. Smiled! “Now you’re the one lying to me. You can’t hide that you want me. That you care?—”

“So what if I did? It won’t erase the fact I am my father’s daughter and…” I sucked in a deep breath, feeling torn in two.

“And what, Irina?” He cupped my face, imploring me with his steady gaze to tell him. “What? What is it that is keeping you loyal to him this time when you weren’t loyal to him before?”

I sniffled, afraid to reveal the one and only reason I ever tried to appease my father.

“Why can’t you believe in my love for you and know it will trump everything else?”

I huffed. He’d gone and said it. Love. A Baranov loving a Petrov. Enemies uniting in the matters of the heart. It was ludicrous.

“You believe that Oleg will just open his arms and let me in like that, huh? That I turn traitor to my father and spill all his secrets, and that’s the key to a happily ever after with you?”

He nodded. “It can happen.”

“It won’t,” I stated.

“Because you don’t want it to? You want to lie to my face and tell me that there’s nothing between us that’s worth fighting for?”

I furrowed my brow. “There is. But my love for you will not be enough to override my love for him.”

He went still. Stiff and hard, he studied me. “Him?”

I couldn’t speak, too afraid to tell him what drove me to tolerate this life.

“Your father?”

I bit back a sob. “My brother.”

He frowned, watching me as I lowered my head. “If I don’t do as my father asks, he’ll… he’ll hurt him. He’ll take his anger out and punish my brother.” Lifting my gaze to his, I let out a deep breath and took a risk to explain it clearly. “If he learns that I’ve betrayed him to his enemy, if I tell Oleg Baranov a single thing, he’ll kill Maxim.”

27

VIKTOR

Maxim?

I watched Irina fight back tears. Her lower lip wobbled as she stared at me, brave to the core to face me with this.

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