Page 82 of Wrath
How? The crumbled remains of her gun had scattered across the floor. That arm of his had turned the metal into shavings, and Dimitri delighted in the fact it scared the living shit out of her. Before he moved to attack her, she pushed off the door and went to the outfit. Keep him busy. Give Alek enough time to get out of there before the alarm went off.
“Look,” she said without turning. “I’m playing your game. I’m putting it on.”
A snort of rage behind her made her think of a bull, and she tried to remain steady, knowing that any moment he could tear her head clear from her shoulders.
“Once I put it on, then what? What do you want from me?” She slipped the dress from the hanger. She shoved her pants down, ripped her top off, and slipped the skimpy dress over her head, all the while continuing to talk. “Why me, Dimitri? Why insist on putting me through this damn charade of yours?”
The heavy breathing seemed to subside.
Unable to zip herself up, the dress hung limply from her shoulders, like a rag doll. When she turned around, his eyes momentarily lost their fire, but then they hardened, once again turning to pure black hate.
“You still have no fucking clue,” he said. “You’re as dumb as your mother.”
She gasped. Still, he brought up her mother?Your mother abandoned me,he’d said.
“She worked for us.” Dimitri stalked toward her, his human hand jabbing in accusation toward her. “Thesukaworked for my father, cleaning our fucking toilets. He paid for her to come from Poland, and what did she do? She fucked him. Got pregnant. But do you think the whore wanted me? No. She got what she wanted—a life in this country. She stayed for two years, and then left me at my father’s door, and abandoned me for her new family.” His eyes narrowed in malice. “You.”
Nausea rolled in her stomach. The carpet rocked beneath her feet. “No. You’re making this up.”
“Nyet, Misha,” he sneered. “I do not make it up. I lived with my asshole father for years telling me how unwanted I was. How a little cockroach like me wasn’t wanted by his cockroach mother. And when I was old enough. I killed him. Stabbed him, then filled his puny mouth with cockroaches—made him choke on them. Then I tracked down this woman. To see if this was theblyád'he led me to believe. To make her see it was an honor to consider me her son. And when I find her dead, when I go to her funeral—” his dark eyes turned vacant. “I was…” He paused, stunned, eyes glazed as he relived the memory. “She had another family. One she wanted. A family who mourned her for being awonderfulwoman.” His face twisted and he spat on the floor. “I would have killed her if nature had not done it for me. Instead, I find you… a woman with the same face. Same hair. The one she had growing in her womb when she left me.”
Denial pumped through her system, but she couldn’t discount he might be telling the truth. Her parents hadn’t met in Poland before coming to this country. They’d met here. Hannah Minksi had immigrated with another man, or there had been one waiting for her. She was a little rusty on the details, but it was entirely plausible. The instant her mind thought it, her heart threw up an argument. Her mother was too kind to be this heartless woman he accused her of being. She had always said their family was the best thing that ever happened to her, and Tata had said she was the best thing that happened to him. Family was important to her.
“No,” she insisted again. “This is part of your sick game. We graduated school at the same time.”
Dimitri laughed. “Look at me,siostra. I am puny. I could pass for a teenager, even now. You know it is true.”
She shook her head. No.
“Yes,” he said, delighting in her horror. “My father beat her as he did me, but instead of staying, instead of protecting me, she left me. And this is what you get now.” He splayed his hands wide.
God. Misha squeezed her eyes shut, mind hurtling back to her childhood. All the times her mother admonished her for whining about her life, saying she didn’t know how good she had it. It had all sounded like gratuitous parenting, but now, it held a note of truth.
A pounding at the door had both of them jolting to attention.
Damn it. Alek was probably still out there. He hadn’t run. Misha’s desperate eyes clashed with Dimitri’s insane ones. There was no way he’d let her go. With a sinking feeling, her hand fluttered to cover her stomach. She should have trusted Wyatt.
Thirty-Eight
Sara’s laughterhaunted Wyatt’s memories.You’re just a dumbass.It’s why I picked you.
Shutting her out, he raced down to the garage and climbed aboard Betty. Sloan and Mary rushed to keep up with him. Sloan with her iPad, chasing down the steps, shouting for him to plan his entry. Never go in blind. That was a rule drilled into them during training. Get eyes on the target. Know your enemy. A small part of him was proud of Sloan for her diligence, but he was already deep in a haze of uncontrollable emotion.
Everything Sloan said took him a step closer to the edge. There were too many voices in his head. He had to get out of there before he snapped. Wrath made his vision blur, just like it had that day he’d chased Evan and Sara down the freeway, running their car off the road and pulling Evan out to beat him.
Stop being so stupid, Wyatt,Sara had whispered into his ear, that night on the freeway.Love can’t conquer all.
* * *
As Wyatt drovethrough the streets of Cardinal City, he stewed. The further he got from HQ, the more his dark thoughts tried to convince him that Misha had lied to him the entire time.
Never trust a woman.
Maybe the voice was right. Whether or not Misha was Syndicate, it was clear she’d been hiding something from him, acting cagey and distant all week. He wanted to be bitter about it, but as he raced toward The Kremlin, he only felt a hollow ache inside, an emptiness she used to occupy. It didn’t sit right. It twisted his gut in a way he’d never felt before.
Regardless of Wyatt’s feelings, Alek deserved his help. The kid didn’t deserve to die by the hand of a psycho like Dimitri.
That’s if Alek is really there.
