Page 274 of Gilded Cage (Kovalyov Bratva 1)

She smiles, but I can sense the stress underneath it. I’ve been sensing it for the last couple of days now.

Not for the first time, I wonder if there’s something she’s not telling me.

Just like there’s something I’m not telling her.

“What were you and Cillian talking about out there before you came to bed?” Esme asks.

“This and that,” I reply vaguely. “Mostly just… business.”

“Okay.”

Esme falls silent. I turn back into the conversation Cillian and I had just before I left him sprawled out on the sofa with his legs hanging off the end.

“She’s special, Artem.”

“I know,” I nod. “You guys had a good talk?”

“I think trust is difficult for her,” Cillian answers carefully. “But I think I made some headway. Pretty sure she likes me.”

“Cocky motherfucker.”

“Can’t really blame her,” he continues, with a shit-eating grin. “I am charming as fuck.”

“Maybe it’s time for you to hit the road, Jack.”

Cillian gives a self-suffering sigh. “You’re just lucky she saw you first,” he says confidently. “That’s the only reason she’s with you right now, instead of me.”

“That’s the only reason?”

“And obviously my cock is way bigger than yours.”

I laugh. “You know you’re the only one who can get away with saying that shit to me, right?”

Cillian gives me a little wink and his smile falls back into seriousness. “She really is great, Artem,” he says. “I think the two of you could be really happy together.”

Cillian catches the uncertainty in my eyes. He’s the only person I don’t hide it from.

“What’s wrong?” Cillian asks.

“Esme wants me to walk away,” I say.

“Walk away?” Cillian repeats.

“From the Bratva.”

“Ah.”

“You don’t seem surprised.”

Cillian shrugs. “I suspected.”

“What do you think?” I ask, because he seems unwilling to volunteer his opinion.

“If you’re asking me what you should do, you’re asking the wrong man,” he tells me, turning away.

“Because you’ll tell me to keep fighting?”

“No,” Cillian says. “Because I don’t know what it’s like to have a family to fight for.”

---