Page 60 of Disgraced (Russian Sinners 3)

He was right to demand that. If Anja got it into her head she’d take off to save her friends, she would. Not sure how I knew that but I knew. I was rather similar in that way. This woman was stubborn and probably one of the reasons why she’d be good for my brother. Once she decided to stay with Dimitry, nobody would pull her away from him. Even Dimitry himself wouldn’t be able to deter her.

“I can’t give you my word until I know the plan,” Anja replied to Dimitry. But I could see her resolve was folding. She trusted him.

“You have my promise, we will come up with a plan on how to help your girlfriends,” he vowed to her. “We’ll reach out to our contacts and feel out the situation as soon as we get back to the cabin. But I want your word you are staying with me and won’t try something stupid.”

I couldn’t help but smirk. It almost sounded like when he was scolding me. Those were words I often heard from Dimitry.I want your word you won’t try something stupid.Of course, I often did something stupid.

Dimitry added in a serious tone, “I never break my promise.” And damn, if he didn’t speak the truth. Even if it meant pain and suffering for himself, he never broke a promise.

Nikolai and I chimed in, “You have our promise too.”

The moment Anja made her decision, I could see resolution on her face. It was a relief written all over it.

“Okay, you have my word; I will stay with you until it’s safe to leave,” she announced.

And a good thing too. “Thank fuck,” I muttered under my breath, swaying slightly on my feet. My strength was pretty much nonexistent at this point. “I don’t think I can stand much longer.”

“Your own damn fault for insisting on coming along,” Nikolai scolded me goodheartedly as he took my arm over his shoulder and Dimitry did the same.

* * *

I was almost as useful as a newborn as Dimitry and Nikolai helped me back to my room. Once I was settled, Anastasia gave us the summarization on her friend Olivia and the predicament she was in. The whole situation made my stomach queasy. It could be because I felt weak after yesterday or because Malcome Schmidt was too close to my Scarlett. It couldn’t be that Scarlett never ran into that sick man with her friendship to Olivia and Anastasia. And I have come to realize those three were really close. Which made my betrayal even worse.

It was time I came clean with some of this shit I have done.

“And Scarlett?” I asked Anja after she was done going over Olivia’s predicament.

She pushed her hand through her hair. “I don’t know,” she muttered exasperated. “My dad said she was taken from the hotel. It just doesn’t make sense because they had already taken me by then. I was taken in front of the nightclub, the Russian Orchid.”

“I own that club,” I told her. She wasn’t dumb. She would eventually connect the dots. I couldn’t be sure what Scarlett had told them but either way, Anja would connect the dots.

“What?” Her eyebrows drew in, and I could almost see those wheels turning in her head.

“I own that club,” I repeated.

The moment she realized what that meant, her face turned angry. She stood up and marched towards me.

“It was you!” Oh, she was furious.

“What are you talking about?” Dimitry and Nikolai asked her at the same time but my eyes were zeroed on Anja. How much did she remember?

“You are the guy who told her we should go to the Russian Orchid.” Her tone was accusatory, and she had every right to be upset. “You are the only reason we went there.”

“Explain.” Dimitry was pissed now too. I have been lying to my brothers, the only family I have ever known and always had my back. My throat constricted, all the years and shit we went through flashing through my eyes. I loved my brothers, and although I readied myself to lose them, it still fucking hurt.

“Don’t cry, Sergei,” Dimitry and Nikolai huddled in the same bed as me. The bed screeched under the weight of me, never mind the three of us. My body shivered from the cold and everything hurt. I still recalled that hunger, how bad my stomach hurt. “I’ll go first thing in the morning and bring something special for you. I’ll take care of you.”

Fuck, how old was I? Six, seven? Nikolai and Dimitry used their body heat to keep me warm, ensured I didn’t perish and this was how I repaid them.

“Scarlett ran into a guy the day we arrived in St. Petersburg,” Anastasia explained to Dimitry. “Scarlett wasn’t interested much in sightseeing. By the second day in the city, all she could talk about was the guy she ran into and went out with. The whole week we spent in St. Petersburg she kept sneaking out while Olivia and I were sightseeing. Then when we came to Moscow, he was there too. She was completely-” she stopped and took a deep breath. There was nothing she would do to me that was worse than what I did. “Olivia nor I were interested in the nightclub but she was all giddy about you.” Her eyes met mine and it was another punch in the gut. Would Scarlett ever forgive me? I wasn’t so sure anymore. “She wanted us to meet you so we thought what the heck. She hadn’t been interested in anyone since forever.” Anja watched me, million questions in her gaze. “Why would you tell her to go to that club and then not show up? That was the only reason she wanted to stay behind. She kept hoping to see you again.”

My jaw complained under the insult of my clenched teeth. This was it. It was the moment that would cost me the only family I had, that I had known. The family I didn’t deserve.

“Stop it, princess,” I told her softly and the recognition flashed across her face. She remembered. She finally remembered the voice and endearment I called her the night I kidnapped her. The night I fucked it up so bad, there was no going back.

“You fucking bastard.” She lunged at me and slapped me hard across my face. I could have stopped her but remained still. I deserved it, and worse. She should torture me, gut me alive. Anything she dished my way, I deserved it. My fucking ass belonged in pits of hell. “How could you?” she screamed.

Before she could hit me again, Dimitry wrapped his hands around her from behind. But that was only because he didn’t know. He would know it very soon though. I readied myself for hate and disgust from the only two family members I had. They might have not been my blood brothers but they were so much more.

---