Page 255 of Gilded Cage (Kovalyov Bratva 1)

“So you don’t want to give it up?” My voice quivers no matter how hard I try to contain it.

“I didn’t…” he says. “…Until I met you.”

I freeze for a moment, studying his face for signs that he might just be saying what he thinks I want to hear.

“Really?” I dare to ask.

“The last couple of weeks up here,” he says, “they’ve been better than I could ever have imagined. I never thought I’d enjoy peace and quiet so much.”

I smile, feeling hope rekindle in my chest.

“Artem,” I say, throwing caution to the wind. “Why don’t we just stay? Stay up here and leave it all behind.”

He raises his eyebrows. “You mean give up my claim as Don?”

“Yes!” I exclaim. “Why fight for something that’s just going to bring down a war on our heads? If you leave the Bratva behind, we can disappear. Yes, your uncle might continue to search for us, but after a few years, he’ll forget. And you and me… we can be happy. Our baby can be happy.”

I’m searching his eyes as I talk, looking for that fire, that spark that I know can lead us into the future I’m desperate for.

I keep telling myself that it’s coming. Any second, I’ll see it.

Agreement. Acceptance. Hope.

Something.

“I want our baby to be safe, Artem,” I tell him, my hand falling over his chest. “I want our baby to grow up happy and secure. I want him or her to have a normal life. I don’t want this child to suffer like I did, or to live up to some kind of expectation of what he should be like you did. Like Cesar did.”

He breathes, slowly and evenly. Doesn’t look away from me. But says nothing.

“My brother changed everything about who he was to fit into the role my father pushed him into. And it broke him. He wore his pain well, but I could see past the veneer. Past the mask.”

Artem watches me silently. I can’t tell what he’s thinking. I wait patiently, but then I start to get nervous. He’s driving me insane.

Say something,I beg silently.Say anything.

“Artem?”

He closes his eyes for a moment, but even when he opens them again, I can’t read what’s behind them.

“I’m not saying that I haven’t thought about it,” he admits.

“Yeah?”

Against my better instinct, hope blossoms in my chest.

He nods. “Esme… it’s a beautiful idea, but reality is oftentimes extremely different.”

“I know it’s not going to be easy, Artem,” I agree quickly. “It’s probably going to take years of adjustment. But I think we can do it. We’ll be together. That’s the whole point—it’s gonna be you and me. And our baby. We can do ittogether.”

“What would I even do, Esme?” he asks. “I’m not cut out for a quiet life. I was trained to fight, to kill, to strategize and plan. I was trained to lead.”

“And you’ll continue to lead,” I tell him, even though I have no idea what that will look like in the normal world. “It’ll just be in a different way. You’ll lead our family.”

The doubt in his face is obvious. I’m running through images in my head.

Artem as a teacher.

As a doctor.

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