Page 89 of Vow of Silence

He sighs, brushing a palm over his bent head. The rigid soldier is gone, replaced with a man torn by thoughts that have never been given a voice until now. “Our brothers in the homeland laugh in our faces, Miss Nastasya.” His shoulders drop. “Your father… He was a good leader at first. Firm. Fearsome. But lately…” He shakes his head. “I shouldn’t be saying any of this.”

I sidestep the man and pace toward where Ivan sits outside my door, feigning interest in his phone again. Thekachkiglances up in time to see me slam the door in his face. Predictably, no sooner than I turn my back, three firm knocks echo around my room.

“What?” I holler the question through the wood.

“You are not to be alone with men in your room,” Ivan states, muffled by the obstruction.

I jerk the door open, the handle clenched in my grasp. “I am engaged to BenitoDe Santis,” I growl. “Do you honestly think I’d shut the door on you so that I can fuck my father’ssovietnikwhen my goddamn husband-to-be is nicknamed The Janitor?” I hitch an eyebrow and wait for an answer.

Ivan swallows, brow firm. “The rules set by your father?—”

“Are bullshit.” I slam the door for the umpteenth time and kick it for good measure.

Dmitry’s chuckle draws me around. Chest heaving, I force myself to pull in a centering breath and count to eight as I slowly release it. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be.”

“I’m a fucking grown woman, and he treats me like a goddamn child.”

“Which is what we were talking about.” Dmitry touches his fingertips idly to the edge of my bed. “Yes, you require some training. Experience. But you are a better fit to lead this family, Nastasya. I’ve been waiting for your father to see that, too.”

“But he won’t.”

“He can’t.” Dmitry meets my eye and shrugs. “Or maybe he does, and he’s afraid of what he finds.”

“You’re not the first person to say that.”

“Benito?” He lifts an eyebrow.

I nod. “He thinks my father fears my power. Feels I’ll overshadow him if I took control.”

“Your fiancé is a smart man.”

“He is,” I agree softly. A beat passes before I say, “I need your help, Dmitry.” I stroll past him and drop into the chair by the window again. Birds dance on the sill outside, startled by my movement. “Benito took me to the crash site a few nights ago.” His jaw stiffens, brow diving. “It helped me remember things Isuppressed. Overlooked. “ I wave a dismissive hand. “Whatever you want to call it.”

“Like?”

“The killers didn’t drive back out the way they came in that night,” I confess. “They droveintoCaroline’s gated community. If they were after me, why would they do that?”

“Perhaps you should have asked them before you killed them.” He leans a shoulder into the wall beside my bathroom door, arms folded as he watches me.

“It slipped my mind to in the heat of the moment.” One elbow on the rolled arm of the chair, I rest my head in the palm of my hand. “It was… chaos at best.”

“Killing people isn’t often a walk in the park, Miss.”

“I didn’t think it was,” I snap, gazing at him beneath my brow.

“What do you need me to do?” Dmitry asks, his face a mask of indifference.

I take stock of the man before me: more relaxed since he walked in, but still with that powerful poise only a man who’s dedicated his life to protecting another can hold. “You know everything my father does, yes?”

“Mostly.”

I hesitate. Do I let him know how much I know? Do I give away that piece of me so easily?How else will you get answers?“Ignazio paid the men to kill Caroline.” I shrug. “Well, me, for all intents and purposes. I want to know why.”

He sighs out his nose.

“And before you give me bullshit about being places I don’t belong, thisismy place, Dmitry.” I scoot forward on the seat. “They put a bullet through the eye of my best friend. A bullet meant for me. I have every damn right to know what’s going on here. To understand why, after almost a decade, my fathercontradicts his word to me andplaces mein the house of our enemy.”

---