Page 79 of Sexting the Bratva Beast
She stands beside me, peering back at the house across the snowy landscape. “I think we should go back to America.”
“Cartier is safer here.”
She sucks in a breath and holds it. I count the seconds waiting for the fine white mist of her exhale to appear. I reach five before it happens.
“Maybe. But we have more resources in Chicago.”
I study her profile. “Talk to me, Ivana. If you’ve found a weakness, I need to know about it.”
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Maybe, but you’re avoiding eye contact—” more so than usual “—which makes me think that there is something to talk about, but you don’t know how to say it. If it concerns Cartier, then it will be better for all concerned if you get it off your chest. I know that you and she are not exactly close but?—”
“Fuck off, Andrej.” Her eyes are almost completely black when she looks at me. “You think that’s what this is about? You don’t know me at all, do you?”
The disappointment in her tone presses down on me, adding to the fatigue blurring the edges of my vision.
“What is it about then?”
“Nothing. Forget it.”
I’ve lost her. The barriers are up, and they’ll only come back down for her sister or Leonid. Then it dawns on me how blind I’ve been.
“You can go back to Chicago if you’re missing Tamara. The private jet is at your disposal. You can fly out tomorrow, if that’s what you want. I know it’s the holidays; I’ll handle things here.”
Ivana doesn’t look at me. She disappears back into the shadows without another word, ignoring both my suggestion to go home and my advice to rest.
The twins have been around since they were kids, but the only interaction I’ve ever had with them has been strictly professional. When Leonid first recovered them from the port, they refused to speak to anyone but him. It was months before they even made eye contact with our mother, but by this point, the bond between them and my brother had been forged out of indestructible metal.
No one questioned it. He took them under his wing, molded them into the cold enforcers that they are, and apparently it was enough for them. He gave them a home, safety, and security, and they hero worship him from afar.
Doesn’t mean I understand what’s going on with Ivana right now.
Still flummoxed by the conversation, I arrange for a bodyguard to take my place and head back inside the house to check the underground tunnel again and get some caffeine.
The heat inside the house makes me feel lethargic. So, I down my black coffee quickly and head upstairs to the bedroom first to check on Cartier.
I expect to find her asleep, but the bedroom is empty. I try the library next—perhaps she’s reading to take her mind off the proposal. The library is empty too.
I find Cartier in the den as usual, a Christmas movie on the TV, her legs curled underneath a blanket.
“Couldn’t sleep?” I enter the room, closing the door behind me to contain the heat from the log fire.
She makes room for me on the sofa, and I sit down, keeping my distance, as difficult as it is to keep my hands off her. I’ve overwhelmed her enough already.
“I spoke to Gianna earlier.”
Alarm bells should ring inside my head, but something inside my twisted heart has recognized the softness in her expression and the sparkle in her eyes, and I cling to them like a drowning man who just realized he might be saved after all.
“What did she say?”
“Only that she is from a mafia family too.” She scrunches up her nose, watching me, and damn if it isn’t the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen.
“I could study your lips all day.”
“Andrej! Did you hear what I just said?”
Fuck!I’m more tired than I realized.
