Page 109 of Rebellion

“B-because you don’t need this. You have so much on your plate, and you were just shot! I’m adding a burden you don’t need.”

“Is that why you never told me?” he said quietly, moving closer to the bed. Then he sat on it, facing her. She found herselffidgeting until he covered her hands with his. “You didn’t tell me he was abusing you because you were worried it would burden me?”

“No,” she managed to get out before swallowing heavily.

That lump in her throat wouldn’t go away. She kind of thought it might be a ball of her emotions. All trapped together.

Waiting to explode out of her.

“Then why? Did you think I wouldn’t believe you? That I would take that fucking dead man’s word over yours?”

“No?”

“Then why,Kotyonok? Why didn’t you tell me he was hurting you? You had to know I would take care of it.”

“I did know that,” she whispered. “I do know it.”

“Then why!”

She jumped. More due to the emotion in his voice than anything else. Aleksandr never raised his voice. He rarely got angry. But it was clear to see he was furious.

“Because he was blackmailing me.”

He clearly wasn’t expecting that. He sat there, staring at her, his breath coming in harsh pants.

“Blackmail?”

Sofia nodded.

“What the hell could he have on you that he could use as blackmail?” he asked.

She glanced away. “I’m not the angel you think I am.”

Sacha snorted. “I know you’re no angel, Sofia.”

She frowned. “You do?”

“I do. You have your faults, like all of us. I also know that you try to do your best by everyone else. Especially me. Sometimes to the detriment of your own safety and health. What blackmail?”

She ran her gaze around the room, looking for any sign of cameras.

“The room is safe.”

She nodded. “Oleg applied for a job eight months ago at Solynshko, but I didn’t get a good feeling from him, so I didn’t hire him. He kept trying to flirt with me, but I didn’t like how he stared at me. Like I was a piece of meat or something. And he tried to play on my sympathies by saying he had recently emigrated here and didn’t know many people.”

She clenched her hands into fists. “A month later, he returned to the restaurant, but he was different. There was a smug look about him. He was even sleazier than before, when I didn’t think that was possible. He wanted to talk to me, but I sent him away. Or I thought I had. He kept coming back. Finally, I decided to meet with him. That’s when he showed me the video.”

“What video?” he asked with a slight frown.

“One of you shooting Danill.”

Danill had worked for Sacha. Until the day that Sacha found him hurting one of the women who worked for him.

She knew what had happened to Danill, even if she didn’t know the details.

“I swear it looked like a real video. I didn’t realize he’d just made it up. How did he even know you shot Boris?” she asked.

“Wait. There was a video?”

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