Page 84 of Ruthless Bonds

The footage from the hotel played on the screen, Gavriil fast-forwarding until we found what we were looking for. Sure enough, on the screen were Adrian and Tomas in the lobby. A woman walked up, but she was almost completely hidden from view, as if she knew she was being recorded. Gavriil zoomed in, yet her face remained hidden. There was no way to tell who it was.

After a while, a man joined them. This must have been the cop Adrian was referring to. Gavriil zoomed in on his face so it filled the screen.

“I don’t see any wounds,” Alora murmured, biting on her bottom lip. “But we’ll need to shower all this blood off to make sure.”

The thought of getting into the shower with her instantly improved my mood. She stood up from the ground, grabbing the bowl and bandages. When she turned toward the screen, her entire face went white, the bowl slipping from her hands.

“Milaya, what is it?” I gripped her by her upper arms, searching her face.

“Why do you have that pulled up?” Her voice quivered as she pointed at the screen. “How do you know him, Kreos?”

My head snapped to the screen, the cop’s face looming over us. “He may have been involved in what happened tonight.” Her body was trembling under my fingers, making alarm bells go off in my head. “Do you know him?”

She nodded, visibly swallowing. “That’s the cop. The one I think murdered my brother. I’ll never forget his face,” she whispered.

Gavriil and I shared a look as I wrapped my armstight around her.

If that cop was working for the Cruel, then Alora might have been right along.

Someone had murdered her brother.

And the Cruel might be the one responsible.

Chapter Sixteen

Alora

Shadows danced around me in the dimly lit darkroom. Music played in the background as I tried to clear my head after all the madness. Bela had dropped off some old rolls of film and asked me to develop them. Apparently, she’d taken them from their family archive right before Kreos had brought her to the States.

When she’d become a widow two hours after saying “I do.”

She was pretty tight-lipped about the whole thing, but I had a feeling that in time, she would tell me. Our friendship had really blossomed over the last few weeks, and she was quickly turning into someone I knew I could count on, like “help me hide the body” count on.

The possibility of seeing photos of a young Kreos made me giddy. His childhood hadn’t been good. He’d told me as much. But I was hoping to find some candid moments between him and his siblings. Times where his mother hadn’t sunk her claws into them and tried to turn them into monsters.

This whole thing with Jameson and the cop was a lot to process. Kreos and Gavriil had given me the bare minimum of information, but I knew they were keeping a lot back.

The cop was dirty and worked for the Cruel.

The Cruel had been exiled from the Bratva by Kreos’ father over seventeen years ago.

That was right around the time Jameson had died.

It didn’t make sense. How could Jameson be involved with the Bratva? He hadn’t been. I knew that, deep in my heart.

So what had happened to my brother?

My phone flashed a message from Dove asking if I wanted to meet her by the pool. That was probably a better distraction than being locked down here in my darkroom. I sent a reply, telling her I would be there soon. Maybe that was all I needed—some sun and a drink with my sister.

I paused at the developer as a picture of young Kreos emerged. He was young, maybe twelve, holding hands with who I assumed was Constantine, and definitely a cute little Bela.

My heart clenched at his face. Stoic, even at a young age. Another image started to appear. That one was definitely a young Kreos, maybe around six, but this time, he had a huge grin on his face like he’d been laughing.

I couldn’t help but wonder what our children would look like. Did I even want to get pregnant with him?

Yes. The answer was yes.

I’d realized last night when he came home covered in blood that I loved him.

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