Page 121 of Lies He Told Me (Bratva Crime Syndicate 1)

A few more minutes of back and forth. She’s asking all the questions, and I’m offering bland answers, answers that don’t matter, that I can’t even remember after saying. The only thing that guides me are Ludmil’s sharp looks when I’m verging into territory I shouldn’t be.

“And your rumored mob connections?” is the question that gets me back in focus.

“Rumored,” I echo.

“Sir, did you hear the question?” she asks, all snarky.

“Rumored,” I say again.

We’re almost there now—at Brampton’s abandoned Jumping Jack power plant. Where the last stand is about to take place.

“Ha, okay.” This is not going to be a flattering portrayal. “What about your new wife? Surely you have more to say about Joy?”

“Don’t talk about her.”

Ludmil elbows me.

“Is everything all right, Mr. Vaknin?” Cindy asks in a faux-concerned tone that doesn’t suit her. “We can do this at another time.”

Yes, at another time… but I see Rudy shaking his head. This is probably the interview he’s been trying to get for months. It’s now or never.

“No,” I say, “No, I … what do you want to know?”

“I mean, you go everywhere together, and everyone who sees you can’t believe their eyes. They say it’s the real thing. Love. True love.”

“I didn’t hear a question there.”

“Just describe Joy to me. What is it about her that drew you in?”

“Joy is …”Stay on track.“Joy is …”Don’t think about it.

And then suddenly, it’s word vomit like I’ve never done in my life.

“Joy is gentle. Good. Funny. Daring. Vivacious. Beautiful. Smart. Tough. Caring. She is everything a person spends their whole life trying to be, and she doesn’t even realize just how good she is. This world doesn’t deserve her. I don’t deserve her.”

“All that?” she teases.

“You don’t know the half of it.”

Neither do I, really. I see that now. Maybe I made a deal with Joy and maybe I even shared a bed with her. But I never got to fully know her.

And yet, what I do know, I love. I want to spend the rest of my life learning to love the rest of her, too.

“Is that all I’m getting from you?” Cindy’s pushing and prodding and I know what she wants, just how I know I don’t want to give it to her, just how I know I will. Because this isn’t about her.

The words keep escaping me; control is slipping. “It wassgorayu ot lyubvi.I was—am—burning up with love for her. When I’m around her, things are better.”

But now that she’s gone … everything is falling apart.

“Boss,” Ludmil says in a low voice.

I look out the window and immediately see the red-brick exterior. We’re here.

“That’s it,” I tell Cindy in a hushed voice. “That’s all I have time for.”

I hang up without waiting for a response and look outside.

You can hear the bullets from here, mixed in with the screams. As we step out of the car, all I can think is that I’m about to die and I never got to say goodbye to her.

---