Page 69 of Savage Lies
“Wife?” Alexei stops pacing to stare at me. “She’s not your wife, Dmitri. She’s a government agent who was sent to destroy us. Or have you forgotten that?”
“Wife. Prisoner. Agent. Doesn’t matter. She’s the line no one crosses and lives. That’s wife enough.”
He gawks at me, and his jaw drops. “She’s your prisoner. And maintaining this fiction is costing us more than just money.”
“Such as?”
“Credibility. Respect. The loyalty of men who think their boss has lost his fucking mind over a woman who tried to put him in prison.”
“My personal decisions don’t affect the business.”
“Don’t they? When was the last time you attended one of our internal meetings? When have you last reviewed financial reports or approved new operations?”
“I review everything that requires my attention.”
“You review what Semenov and I bring to your attention. But you’re not managing anything because you’re too busy playing house with a woman who wants you dead.”
“She doesn’t remember who she was.”
“Maybe she doesn’t, or maybe she’s playing a longer game than you realize.” Alexei resumes his pacing. “Either way, the organization is suffering because you’re not present.”
“I’m present.”
“You’re physically present. Mentally, you’re obsessed with keeping her happy and confused and dependent on you.” He spins around to pin me with a glare. “Do you know what Father would say about this?”
I wince at the question. I know what our father would say. He would say that personal feelings are a luxury that men in our position cannot afford. He would say that anyone who threatens the organization should be eliminated.
He would say that keeping Katya alive is the kind of mistake that gets entire families killed.
But I can’t help it. I am obsessed with her. Obsessed with the way she looks at me like I'm worth saving, obsessed with claiming every response I can draw from her body, and obsessed with making sure no one else can have what's mine.
“Father’s not here,” I grit out between clenched teeth.
“No, but his principles should be. And his first principle was that the organization comes before everything else.”
“The organization is fine.”
“The organization is bleeding money while you hire expensive consultants to protect a woman who doesn’t need protection from external threats.”
“She needs protection from people who want to kill her.”
“Why do you care if they kill her? That would fix the problem for us, and you wouldn’t have her blood on your hands. Or do you need to justify keeping her around by creating threats that require your protection so you can play hero?”
My face burns hot as I growl, “That’s not what this is about.”
“It sure looks like you’re so afraid of her remembering who she is that you’ll bankrupt the organization to keep her confused and grateful.”
“The organization isn’t going bankrupt.”
“The organization is stagnating. We’re spending more on defensive measures than offensive operations. More on security consultants than territorial expansion.” Alexei pulls out his phone to show me a financial summary. “This month’s expensesinclude forty thousand for surveillance equipment and sixty thousand for additional personnel. And now, you want to hire a full-time residential consultant.”
“Security is an investment.”
“It’s an unnecessary expense. Expensive security for one person is a luxury we can’t afford indefinitely.”
“So, what are you suggesting?”
“I’m suggesting you remember who you are and what you built before she came along. You need to decide whether you’re the leader of a criminal organization or a lovesick fool who’s going to destroy everything for a woman who was sent to destroy him.”
