Page 102 of Gilded Cage (Kovalyov Bratva 1)

The two don’t exactly look alike, at least not physically. The familiarity is more in their mannerisms. The hooded, dangerous look burning in their dark eyes.

I expect Artem to stop, but he doesn’t. He keeps walking past everybody until we emerge into the bright sunshine.

The limo is waiting for us at the steps of the cathedral. Artem walks me all the way down and opens the door for me.

I get inside, but he doesn’t follow me.

For one moment, I actually think he’s going to shut the door in my face and send me back to the apartment by myself.

Some fucking wedding day.

But then he ducks down and looks at me, framed by the car door.

“I have to speak to my father,” he tells me. “It’ll only be a moment.”

He shuts the door. I sit there in the limo, trying to process what just happened.

I’mmarried.

Legally speaking, I’m a married woman now. That seems like it ought to be top of mind.

But strangely enough, I’m more preoccupied with what Artem said to me. The words he whispered in my ear.

Acting on impulse, I press the button to bring down the partition separating me from the driver.

The chauffeur glances back at me with surprise. Nervousness, too, like he’s afraid of being caught talking directly to me.

I don’t explain myself. I just repeat the words that Artem said to me back in the cathedral.

“Teper' ty moya navsegda.”I say, enunciating as carefully as I can. “What does it mean?”

He raises his eyebrows and there’s a second of silence.

“Tell me,” I order with a confidence I don’t really feel.

He licks his lips and sighs before saying, “It means, ‘You’re mine forever now.’”

I hold the driver’s pitying gaze for just a moment.

“Thank you,” I say as I put the partition back up.

It takes everything I have not to scream.

27

Artem

“Congratulations, son.”

Stanislav’s face remains impassive even as he shakes my hand. His skin has a sallow complexion to it today but I refrain from asking about his health. He’d never forgive me if anyone overheard it.

Budimir and Cillian converge around me, saying more of the same. I accept their congratulations with a nod of my head.

“Don’t look so somber, boy,” Budimir says. “With a bride like that, you should be grinning from ear to ear.”

“He is right to be cautious,” Stanislav interrupts. “She may be your wife now, but she’s still an unknown quantity. If she compromises our mission, then she will be terminated.”

He says it coldly, his eyes flickering over to the limo where Esme is waiting for me.

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