Page 52 of Ripped Lace (Ripped Bratva)
“I am the fucking underboss of this little organization,” he growls back. “And it used to be that this kind of thing was exactly my business.”
“She’s my wife now. That makes her my business and mine alone.”
“Is that right?” Matvei presses. “She’s your wife now, is she? Funny, I thought your marriage was meant to be a façade. A mind game.”
“She can be both.”
“I think the two things are directly antithetical to one another.”
“If you’re gearing up for a lecture, then at least pour me a fucking drink.”
He grabs my shoulders hard in his hands. “Phoenix, I’ll only ask you this once: do I need to be worried?”
I roll my eyes and swat his hands away. “What are you, my fucking mother? Even she hasn’t suffocated me this much.”
“Because she’s not around to see how badly you’re crashing.”
“Crashing?” I growl, my eyes bugging out of the sockets.
“Yeah, that’s right. Crashing. You’re spinning out of control. You’re letting your obsession with Astra Tyrannis overrule your common fucking sense.”
“In what way?”
“In that you used to have some and now you have none.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “I’m not losing anything. I know what I’m doing. You just need to trust me.”
“I would trust you if you were honest with me,” Matvei spits back. “Tell me the full truth and I might support you, instead of having to question what the fuck you’re doing all the time.”
“You want to know what happened?” I seethe. “I had her meet me for dinner on the veranda. We talked, ate, and then it… devolved from there. I held her over the edge, threatened to kill her, and when she called my bluff, I finger-fucked her until she was begging to come. Then I stopped just shy of her orgasm and left her crying on the edge of the balcony. That’s what happened. Do you have any follow-up questions,brother?”
Silence ensues. Matvei looks horrified. “Jesus Christ, Phoenix.”
“She’s fighting back this time.”
“I don’t blame her. You wanted her to take your shit lying down?”
“Do I need to remind you that you’re the one who wanted me to get rid of her?” I point out. “You’re the one who believed she was a spy.”
“Yes, and I thought you’d deal with her as a spy. But you decided to go and marry her. That changes things.”
“Not necessarily.”
“I see,” Matvei says. “So you’re toying with her.”
I whirl around to face him. “What the fuck is your problem lately?” I demand. “You’ve been nothing but confrontational with me.”
“Because you refuse to be upfront with me!”
“I wonder why,” I drawl sarcastically. “I don’t care to be questioned.”
“That’s exactly the goddamn problem.”
I narrow my eyes at him. Matvei Tereshkova is my second. My underboss. The man I trust most in the world, as good as blood. But I can feel the chasm that’s opened up between us. It’s huge, gaping, and it doesn’t look to be shrinking down anytime soon.
Bridges in my world are burning. God only knows if they’ll ever be rebuilt.
Good thing I don’t give a fuck anymore.
