Page 75 of Bratva's Vow
I turned away.
“Dammit, Maxim, don’t walk away from me.”
“You’re embarrassing yourself by making a scene,” Archie said sharply from behind me. “Go with Dezi and don’t make any more trouble for Maxim.”
Irritated at Archie for reprimanding Wren, I spun to face him. Only Jess was already in his face, stepping protectively in front of Wren.
“Don’t talk to him that way,” she snapped, shrugging off Nik’s hand when he reached for her. “If Maxim had told him the truth in the first place, would things have been this bad? Who the fuck do you think you are anyway?”
Archie straightened his jacket, eyes sharp beneath the polished veneer. “I’m Maxim’s sovetnik,” he said coolly, his voice rising just enough to cut through Jess’s fury.
Jess blinked. “His what?”
“His adviser. His right hand. His”—he glanced at me—“trusted second-in-command. You don’t last in this world without someone who knows you inside and out. Someone who’s got your back no matter what.”
Jess scoffed, disgust bleeding into her voice. “And I’ve got his back.” She pointed at Wren. “To be clear, I don’t give a damn what you call yourself, but you come at him again?—”
“Jess—” Nik stepped forward, placing himself subtly between his woman and Archie. “Baby, this isn’t about you.”
“Like hell it isn’t. You all roped me into a situation that made me betray him, and didn’t even have the guts to tell me the full truth. I’m mad at you too, Nik!”
“Must she be here?” Archie asked no one in particular. “She has nothing to contribute to the situation, and if it’s not a solution, it’s a problem.”
“Hey, she has every right to be upset,” Nik growled, baring his teeth at Archie. “If not for Jess, would we have found Wren? And what the fuck do you mean by ‘it’?”
Of course I would have found Wren. Did Nik really doubt that? It might have taken me longer to comb every nook and cranny, but as long as I had breath left in my body, I would always find him. There was no distance he could run that I couldn’t reach.
“Enough,” I snapped, low and biting. “Standing here and arguing isn’t going to solve anything. Archie, you are out of line. Jess has every right to be here. She’s Wren’s family.”
“For fuck’s sakes, Maxim, he already knows,” Archie said. “What if I tell the truth like it is? What’s the sense of carrying on as if you don’t deal in blood and bullets? It’s a part of our world. It is who we are, and having the hots for some twenty-one-year-old doesn’t change that. If he can’t handle that life, then maybe you should let him go.”
“I’ll never let him go!” I roared, blood rushing hot behind my eyes. “He’s mine. Do you hear me?Mine.”
I took a step forward, fists clenched at my sides, the rage clawing to the surface from a place so deep I didn’t know if it would ever stop burning.
“He belongs to me and always will.” I was so fucking angry. Spittle flew from my mouth, and with every word, my voice swelled, piercing the open space. “Nothing will ever change that. Nothing. This is his fucking home, so stopfucking telling me to let him go. The next person who so much as suggests it, I will cut his tongue out and feed it to him, and I don’t care who that is. He”—I pointed in Wren’s direction without looking at him—“is always going to be mine.”
Jess had stepped back into Nik’s arms as though he could protect her from my tirade. Archie parted his lips like he was about to argue again but thought better of it. He must have seen how dangerously close he was to becoming mute.
But I didn’t look at Wren.
I couldn’t.
He always complained about how possessive I was with him. I’d practically pissed on him in front of everyone. What if I looked at him and his face was painted in disgust?
Worse—what if he was afraid? Of me?
I’d rather face a hundred enemies with guns at my head than look into his eyes and find fear. His anger I could accept, but not his fear.
The silence that followed was total. Even the wind had the decency to stay quiet.
A beat passed.
Two.
My heart thundered like it meant to tear through my ribs.
“Sergei,” I said finally, voice like steel against stone, “let’s go.”
