Page 176 of Nine Months to Love
“A fair trade.” I repeat what she said slowly. Tasting it. Hating it. “You murdered an innocent girl so you could escape.”
“Who are you to judge? You’ve killed people, Stefan. Lots of people. Don’t pretend you’re better than me.”
“I’ve never killed an innocent.”
“Everyone is innocent to someone.”
I want to argue. But the truth is, I don’t know a goddamn thing anymore. The lines I used to draw so clearly have blurred over the years until I can’t tell right from wrong, black from right, insane from perfectly logical.
I glance at Iakov. He hasn’t moved, but there’s a new shade of emotion in his face. Disgust, perhaps. He didn’t know the full story. Not this part, at least.
“Let’s say I believe you,” I tell Natalia. “Let’s say you killed Mikayla and faked your death. That still doesn’t explain why you’re doing this now. Why come after me? Why the Bratva?”
“Because it’smine,” she hisses.
“It was never yours.”
“It should have been!Ibuilt it alongside Matvey.Imade the connections.Ismoothed over the conflicts. I was the one who kept everything running while he spiraled into paranoia and depression.”
“You mean while you drove him to paranoia and depression.”
“He drove himself. I just refused to stop him. Those are the facts, Stefan.”
I lean forward, pressing my palms flat against the desk. “Here’s a fact for you, Natalia. Even if I give you the Bratva, you won’t live forever. You’ll have to pass it on to someone. Who’s it going to be? Iakov?”
“That depends on you.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means if you behave, if you listen to your mother, I’ll make sure your daughter inherits what’s rightfully hers.”
My blood runs cold. “You stay the fuck away from my daughter.”
“I have no intention of hurting her. In fact, I’d very much like to meet her. To be her grandmother.”
“Over my dead body.”
“If you insist, son, then that can be arranged.”
Her plan is obvious and undeniable. She’s going to kill me. The moment I give her what she wants, the moment I’m no longer useful, she’s going to put a bullet in my head and take everything.
But I’m not going to let that happen.
I straighten up. “You’re forgetting something, Natalia.”
“What’s that?”
“Even if you go to the feds with your so-called evidence, it doesn’t mean anything without the bodies. Mikayla Vladislav’s body is dust by now,” I say. “Scattered in the ashes of that cabin you burned down. And Mila’s body?” I smile cruelly. “That will never be found. I promise you that.”
“You think you’re so clever, Stefan. So untouchable. But everyone has a weakness. And I know yours.”
“Do you?”
“Olivia.”
My heart stops. “Touch her and I’ll hunt you to the ends of the fucking earth, Mother.”
“I don’t need to touch her. I just need to talk to her. Once I show her who you really are, everything else becomes so, so simple.”
