Page 67 of Hateful Vows
I nod once. “Not on the same day but she became the reason for all of them. He tried to give me a joker smile and it was the first time I bested him. He got bigger and meaner and tried totake my eye. I didn’t let him, but I got whipped within an inch of my life that day.”
“God. And I thought my father was a piece of shit.”
He shakes his head, his words tinged with regret.
“He got what he deserved.”
“I’m glad you killed him,Lyosha. And I’m glad she watched.” He waits a beat but the pause is pregnant with unsaid words. He wants to add something and it’s going to be about her. I can feel it.
“Is that why you always pretended to hate her?” he asks.
“Who says I was pretending?”
He clicks his tongue and gives me a sardonic look.Right.I already admitted I never did. And I came to him for her protection, giving him half the Bratva’s income just so he’d go with it. I have no place left to hide behind.
“With all due respect, pretty boy, even blind I would know you love her. Because unlike you, I know what love looks like. You’re so fierce with it, it burns. But she’s never going to let you love her if you don’t let her be who she truly is.”
“And what is that?”
“A viper. A queen. A blood-thirsty bitch,” he adds the last word with a fondness only someone who loves her would be capable of. And I’m not even jealous. After the life she’s had and the struggles she’s faced, Irina deserves all the love she can get. And I won’t ever be enough for her.
My fists tighten around the wheel. “I don’t know how.”
“That’s why you have me, pretty boy.”
The rest of the way, Dante leaves his hand on me and I wish this would be how I end every single day for the rest of my life.
TWENTY-SEVEN
DANTE
On our way back, I’m starving. I insist on getting a burger at a drive-by and eating it in the parking lot like a teenager hiding his love of junk food from his parents. The look of utter disdain on Aleksei’s face is so comical, I wish Irina was here to appreciate it. We eat in silence before he lathers a heavy dose of hydrogel on his hands, mouth upturned like the fat burger insulted him. It’s so easy to disturb Aleksei’s little routines. And I take too much pleasure in it.
When we arrive at the penthouse, only a few low lights illuminate our path into the living room. The silence is deafening. I expected my viper wife to bite my head off, but she’s nowhere to be found and the door to our bedroom is wide open.
Aleksei follows me all the way up, and surprise morphs into comfortable warmth. I like him in our space. The man is a closed book on his best days but he must have been more rattled than he let on. I pick the bottle of scotch on the vintage cart and pour both of us a dram. He swallows it in one go and I roll my eyes.
“This isn’t cheap vodka,Lyosha! It’s a three-thousand pound bottle of Scotland’s finest whiskey, for Christ’s sake.”
I pour him another and give him a pointed look as he sips it slowly.
“I don’t drink vodka,” he counters. I narrow my eyes at him. The corner of his lip, close to his scar, twitches.
“Aleksei Dobrev, making a joke?” I clutch a hand to my heart, feigning surprise, though where he is concerned, it kind of is. I shouldn’t like him relaxing around me like this so much. But what can I say? I do have a natural attraction for broken souls.
Percy meows at my feet and I pick him up, wincing slightly with the remnant pain of the bullet hitting my back. I bump my forehead against his. I’ve never had a pet, my father would have skinned it alive but I would die for my furry baby. Irina might think he’s hers but we both know who the mutt prefers.
Me. It’s me. I feed him the best salmon money can buy behind her back, he’d better.
Now, he seems agitated, meowing again like he wants to alert me to something. My hackles rise. I look up to see Aleksei’s head dropping down, chin to chest, with a defeated sigh.
“What’s wrong?” I ask him, and the cat.
“Irina probably started her period.”
“What?”
“Perceval is very protective of her and when she’s on her period, she has a tendency to… self-isolate. He doesn’t like it.”
