Page 60 of Forcibly Sold to the Bratva
“How dare you? It wasn’t your place,” he roars into the phone. “You sick asshole. I’m going to get you for this.”
“Oh yeah? What will you do?” I taunt. “You couldn’t even protect her from being taken in the first place.”
“I will burn your entire world to the ground, Letvin. I will take everything and everyone you love, the way you took her from us.”
Something in me snaps at the threat. I think of Nikandr’s hollow eyes, of Lilibeth’s scars, of the months we spent hunting the Sokolov brothers with no success. And now one of them has the audacity to threaten me?
“Listen carefully,” I say, ice in my veins. “Arina is leverage, nothing more. Did you really think I married her because I wanted her? I took her to draw you out, and it worked. She’s still with me, serving her purpose. The thing is, I’m keeping her around to use her, and it gives me great joy to see you watching from a distance, helpless.”
I hate talking about her in this manner, but I press on, wanting to hurt him, to make him feel a fraction of what my family felt.
“When I’m done with her, she’ll be the one to hurt. Poor thing, it’s not her fault. But you started it, and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it while I end this.”
“You son of a—”
A small sound from behind me cuts through Tikhon’s curse. I turn, and there in the doorway stands Arina, looking shocked. Our eyes lock, and I gasp, ending the call instantly. By the time I am standing, she’s already run out of my office.
“Arina, wait!” I head to the door to follow her and explain, when one of my men appears in the hallway from the other end.
“Boss?” he sounds urgent. “We have a situation. They’re saying the shipment we received on the East Dock from Mexico doesn’t match what was loaded.”
I look in the other direction, where Arina ran off. I need to talk to her, but if someone’s stealing our shipments, we could be in serious trouble. Agafon trusts me with this, and we have more ships out at sea as we speak.
“Sir?” he presses.
“Give me a second,” I snap and pull out my phone to call Arina. It goes straight to voicemail. I leave a message telling her I can explain.
Maybe she just needs some space to cool down. If I try talking to her now, while she’s still so angry, it might blow up in our faces. A calmer head makes for better conversation.
And so, I turn in the other direction and give the associate a nod. “Let’s go.”
***
When I come back home that evening, I immediately get out of the car and head in, asking the first maid I see where Arina is. I need to talk to her.
“Mrs. Letvin left with your sisters about ten minutes ago, Sir. They’re headed to the lake house for the night.”
“Did they go alone?” I ask, fear taking over.
“No, sir,” she explains. “The convoy went with them.”
Relief washes over me, quickly followed by guilt. At least she’s with Tatiana and Katya. At least she’s protected. But the look on her face when she heard what I said to Tikhon—that will haunt me till I get to speak to her.
***
It’s been three days since Arina overheard the horrible things I said, and she’s been avoiding me since. She eats in her room, keeps her door locked, and refuses to let me enter.
When I pester her, I learn she takes off for another outing with my sisters, conveniently choosing to stay out of the house.
Tonight, yet again, she’s not at home. I find myself going crazy thinking of her and feel like I’ll drive myself utterly mad if I don’t find something to do.
On impulse, I head over to one of our warehouses. There’s a shipment going out, and I can maybe overlook it. It buys me time, too, for when I return, Arina will be back, and I can force her to finally talk.
God, I miss her. I miss her laugh and those eyes sparkling with life when she’s happy. I just miss her presence, even when we sit in quiet. I can no longer let her think what she’s thinking. She’s learned too much in the past few days, and this burden she carries from what I said isn’t even one to be carried.
I only said those things to piss off Tikhon, and she must know that.
I’m pulled back to the present when my warehouse manager comes to report that everything is proceeding well. “We’ll have the shipment moved to secure storage by tonight.”
