Page 38 of The Bratva's Hunted Bride
Jaroslav stands up and starts pacing aggressively back and forth. “What else are you Abashins hiding? How the hell do you expect us to trust you?”
“Sit down, Jaroslav,” Oleg growls. “And mind your words.”
Jaroslav spins toward my brother. “Don’t you fucking dare tell me what to do. Did you and your brother plan this together? When were you going to tell us? I found out from someone who happened to be at the party. Not from you. Not from my supposedally.”
“I said sit down,” Oleg demands, standing up, his fists clenched at his side.
“Or what?” Jaroslav snarls. He marches over to Oleg, sizing him up, and pushes forward. Oleg doesn’t back down, and I stand too.
Diomid’s eyes narrow, and he shoves his chair back and reaches for his gun as he gets to his feet.
Fuck.Diomid is likely to do something rash, something reckless. I need to bring this down a notch. My brothers will defend me to the point of getting themselves shot, and I don’t want that on my conscience.
I lift my hands in the air.
“Gentlemen, please. Let’s take a step back. This was my doing. It was my plan,” I say quickly, trying to defuse the imminent explosion between my family and the Shevchenko brothers. “I did itforour alliance,notto tear us apart,” I say with force. “It was a calculated move.”
I should add some kind of apology.Sorry for doing it without their permission?Fuck that. I won’t grovel with these assholes.
For a moment, no one moves, all still ready to fight, as though that’s going to change a damn thing.Talia is still mine, no matter what direction this meeting goes in. Ultimately, that’s all I give a fuck about.
Rigor stands and slams his hands against the table. “Everyone sit the fuck down,” he growls. “Fighting will benefit no one. What’s done is done. We need to make this work to our benefit now.”
We all turn toward him; his outburst snaps us out of our thoughts for a second, and the tension in the room drops by a few degrees. Just enough to make everyone step back, even if reluctantly. We all take our seats again.
The rest of the meeting is tense, but we move on to other topics. For now, the pressure to explain my reasoning is over. Thank goodness, because I doubt any of them would appreciateit if I were to tell them the truth. That I did it because ofher.Because Iwantedher. Because my dark desire to have her outweighed any care I had toward the alliances.
That I will choose her again and again over them.
The meeting ends, and I leave first, eager to get away from them, but just as eager to get back home to Talia. She was furious last night, acting irrationally and angrily, wanting to leap out of a moving car. I don’t think she would have done it, but I still want to keep my eye on her.
Things between us might be tense for a while, but I have her forever. I have all the time in the world to make her understand that none of it matters. All that matters is that she belongs to me.
The elevator doors are about to slide closed on the top floor of Rigor’s office building when my brother shoves his hand between the doors to stop them. They slide open again, and I suppress the groan of annoyance that threatens to escape my throat. Diomid steps into the elevator and slams his finger against the button.
“Where’s Rigor?” I ask, hoping to avoid the Talia topic altogether.
“Trying to smooth things over with the others. What the fuck were you thinking man? If Matvey were here, he’d have shot you himself,” Diomid snaps.
Of all the people to be giving me a lecture, Diomid is the last one who has a leg to stand on.
I snort, shaking my head. “Who stood by you when you drove Matvey’s car off a cliff after he…”
“How are youstillbringing that up?” he snaps. “It was years ago.”
“It wasoneincident amongst years of incidents, Diomid. Oneprimeexample of me having your back when you do reckless things,” I growl at him.
“Are you admitting you did a reckless thing?” He cocks his head to the side, almost smiling.
“I’m telling you to have my back,” I huff.
The doors slide open, and I step out, Diomid following after me.
“Man, I’m just trying to make sure that this isn’t like what happened in the past…”
I spin to glare at him. My eyes pierce into him. “Don’t even suggest that to Matvey,” I snarl.
He raises his hands. “Alright, man. I’ll drop it. I hope you know what you’re doing.”
