Page 2 of Unveiled

We spent every afternoon by the creek in Zalivka, the city outside of Moscow where we both grew up, throwing rocks and climbing trees, swearing that nothing would ever come between us.

He was the one I cried to when my parents died. As teens, we bought each other condoms and borrowed each other’s weapons. We shot weapons by the creek until Rafail caught us and kicked both our asses. We didn’t stop—we just got more discreet.

But the liquor came too easily. The lies were harder to detect. I should’ve seen it all coming.

I shoot Eli a text, watching the message hang before failing to deliver.

After all these years, after everything we’ve been through, he fuckingbetrayedme. All of us.

As if his family can fucking afford it.

“The problem’s bigger than that, Semyon.” My pulse beats hard and fast. I blow out a breath as he explains. “Eli’s father couldn’t pay back the Irish, so he put up his daughter as collateral. If the Irish take her and the bakery, they get access to the harbor—dangerous for us.”

I know Rafail cares about the fucking harbor, but I’m stuck onAnya.

The Irish.FuckingThe Irish.Our rivals, always looking for an opening.

Rafail continues. “When he couldn’t pay, he put Anya down as cosigner on the loan.”

Silence. Then, a roaring in my ears. My vision tunnels. The steering wheel creaks under my grip.

Anya. Christ.

I slam my fist against the dashboard, the plastic groaning under the force. My breath comes in sharp, short bursts. They think they can take her? They think they can fucking touch her?

Rafail keeps talking, but I barely hear him. My heart pounds, my pulse racing. Anya, in the filthy, bloodstained hands of the fucking Irish. They’d rip her apart. Break her.

Rafail continues. “And in the eyes of the Irish…”

“A contract is a contract,” I finish through gritted teeth.

The Irish have been circling like vultures. If they get to the Borozov first and take the bakery, they claim access to the harbor… and Anya.

Anya Borzova. Elizar Borozov’s younger sister.

The girl who used to chase fireflies by the creek, the glow of them catching in her wild hair, her laughter making me smile when the world seemed dim and hopeless. The girl who would look at me with such wide and trusting eyes, itwould make my heart ache. She’d blush furiously and run whenever she caught my gaze.

I watched her grow from a shy, freckle-faced kid into a headstrong woman with too much light, too much innocence for this world. I kept her at a distance.

Ihadto.

She was off-limits. Untouchable. I told myself it was to protect her, but the truth was much worse: I wanted her too much. She didn’t belong in this world—my world—and the closer she got, the more I knew I’d ruin her. I knew how easily I’d corrupt her. In my mind, if she was still my best friend’s little sister, she would staysafe.

If I could just pretend—if I could freeze her in time, hold her in my memory as the innocent kid who loved books more than people and dreamed of worlds bigger than ours—maybe she’d stay untouched by this life.

By me.

My mind quickly slides everything into place like the pieces on a chessboard.

“We have an option, Semyon, but I need your buy-in.”

“What’s that?” I curse under my breath, gripping the wheel tighter.

“We clear Borozov’s debt in exchange for his daughter’s hand in marriage.” A pause. “She’s an option.”

She could never be a fucking option.

“She’s a fucking child.”

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