Page 16 of Immaculate Corruption (Romanoff Bratva)

“Anyway,” Arya says, “I’m still waiting for you to explain what you want from me.”

I nod grimly. “You’re going to help me kill a man.”

She laughs out loud, right in my face. “Absolutely not.”

“I wasn’t asking.”

“Yeah, well, I’m answering anyways. It’s a hard no for me. Thanks but no thanks, great to see you again, I’ll just be on my way now so if you could be so kind as to—”

CLICK.I lock the doors of the car just as Arya reaches for the handle.

She rattles it a few times, then glances back over her shoulder at me. “That’s not funny, Dima. Let me out.”

“No,krasavitsa,I don’t think I will. And I don’t think I want to hear you talk anymore, either. You’re going to sit the fuck down. Shut the fuck up. And listen to what I have to tell you. Am I understood?”

Arya’s fingers slowly slip from the car door handle and flutter down into her lap. She looks at me, and for an instant, the fire fades away and there’s just a mournful kind of longing in her eyes.

“You’re serious, aren’t you?” she asks quietly. “You really want me to help you kill someone.”

“Very fucking serious.”

“And you won’t take no for an answer.”

“No, Arya, I will not.”

She blinks like she’s weighing all the implications of that. Then she sighs. “But why?”

“Because this is how you pay off your debts to me.”

She does a full-body shudder that ends in a tiny, terrified little gasp. “Don’t say it like that,” she whispers, barely audible. “That’s what Jorik told me.”

I clench my fists at my side. “I’m not him.”

“But when you say that, you sound like him.”

“I’m not him. I’m not a fucking rat. Not a fucking backstabber. I’m a man of my word, Arya. Do this and you’ll be free.”

She looks at me again and sighs. Those perfect lips part like she wants to say something important.

Then, at the last moment, she changes her mind. “Do you promise?” she says instead.

I shake my head. “No. But you don’t have any other choice, do you? Now, listen up. Here’s what you’re going to do.”

7

Arya

Dima drops me back off at the motel, then drives away without so much as a goodbye.

I feel dizzy, nauseous, overwhelmed. For weeks now, I’ve been hoping I’d never see him again—until my dreams, when I saw him again and again.

I never knew exactly what would happen if fate brought us back together. But I never could’ve imagined it would go like this.

You’re going to help me kill a man. This is how you pay your debts.

The words ring around in my head again and again. It’s sickening. But like Dima said, what other choice do I have?

If I want to be free, I have to do this.

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