Page 58 of Vitaly

Staring down at my shoe a moment, I kick at the concrete floor. When I look back up at her, she’s scratching her arm and peering at me like she’s counting on this. Like she’sbeencounting on this.

“I’m sorry.” I lift a shoulder before sliding my hands into my pockets. “I only came back for Mila.”

Her forehead wrinkles as she blinks at me. “Mila Alekseev?”

I nod.

She stares a few moments, searching my face like she’s thinking. I know she remembers Mila. Everyone would remember Mila. It isn’t often that someone spits on their father’s decision like I did.

Finally, Alexa’s eyes steady, and she seems to have made up her mind about something.

“Good.”

I tilt my head. “Good?”

She gives a single nod, her spine straightening. “The best leaders are chosen by their people. If you were here just to kill your uncle and take control, you’d be a dictator. It’s good that you didn’t come here to be Pakhan…” She sucks in a lungful of air, her eyes shining with hope I wish would dim. “But your peopleneed you, Vitaly. Don’t abandon them again.”

Again.

I’m getting real tired of hearing that.

I wait a few seconds, letting her words linger in the air before pointing my feet toward the door. “It was good to see you, Alexa.”

Her shoulders slump, and she says nothing as I leave, carrying her disappointment with me.

16

MILA

Ishouldn’t be surprised.

Ishouldn’t.

Vitaly is a snake. He’s always been a snake. He’s never cared for another human being in his life, never given another person a second thought.

So why, when his lips press against Alexa Volcov’s—Gruconow—am I surprised? She embraces him with such intensity, like she’s been waiting all nine years to be in his arms. It sickens my stomach. I feel it drop. Nausea swirls in my gut and pushes up my throat.

It had to be her. Of all people.

Of courseit was her. The traitor. The deserter. The poor girl who managed to bag herself a don. What is it about this woman that attracts power? What makes her so special?

Alik is quiet beside me while we watch their embrace from the shadows. Alexa leads Vitaly inside the bathroom like the harlot she is while the nausea pushes farther up until my throat feels thick.

I swallow and breathe through my nose. When I speak, I work hard to keep my voice even. “Well, I guess that confirms it. He didn’t come back for me.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure.”

I peer over at Alik who stares at the bathroom like he’s developed x-ray vision. There’s nothing to see. Certainly nothing Iwantto see. But from his intense gaze, I can tell we’re staying put.

“He’s been here forty-eight hours and is already shacking up with the Italian’s whore.” I scoff and glare at the bathroom. “Maybe he came back forher.”

Maybe they’re lovers.

He’s the one who told me you should never show your hand. Maybe this is what he’s hiding. I’ve just been the decoy.

Why does that thought make my stomach cramp?

“We don’t know that they’re fucking,” Alik says. I know he isn’t saying it for my benefit—because why would I care who Vitaly fucks?—but still, his skepticism is unusually comforting.

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