Page 73 of Sapphire Tears

I stop short. “You’ve seen her?”

“No. Sara called me. I had her send me their location and I sent two men to go get the two of them.”

“Two men?” I ask, practically jumping down her throat. “You sent onlytwo fucking men?”

She holds her ground and stares at me impatiently. “I was more concerned with rallying the troops to find you,” she snaps. “I didn’t know how many of these anonymous assholes we were dealing with, and June didn’t exactly have any intel to offer.”

“She’s my fiancée, Milana,” I growl. “You should have sent ten times that many.”

“Spare me the lecture, Kolya,” she fires back. “I just saved your ass. If I hadn’t come when I did, you’d have been dead. Or worse, taken captive.”

“At least the latter would have put me face to face with my fucking brother.”

Milana sighs. “Kolya, you have got to get a hold of yourself. This Bratva needs you. We can’t afford to have you distracted.”

I twist around, feeling my anger rise like adrenaline. “What makes you think I’m distracted?”

“The first question out of your mouth was about June.”

“Your point?”

“My point is that you need to focus, Kolya,” she snaps. “We’ve got other problems. We’ve been cut off by our Russian suppliers, or have you forgotten about that part?”

“I haven’t forgotten anything,” I snarl.

She sighs, distress rippling across her forehead. “I’m not saying June is unimportant,” she begins. “I’m just trying to say—”

“Then stop trying!” I interrupt. “Stop saying anything until I tell you to speak.”

Her jaw slams shut, and she stares at me in disbelief. We don’t have this kind of relationship. I don’t yell orders at her like this. And yet her insinuation that I’ve dropped the ball because I’m pussywhipped is pushing me dangerously close to snapping.

“Is that how this is going to work now?” she asks. Her tone is composed, but I can hear the shiver of anger underneath each breath. “You tell me what to do and I snap my heels and salute?”

“That’s how this should have worked from the beginning,” I snarl. “We’re not fucking friends, Milana. You work for me.”

She bristles and steps back. Her eyes survey the makeshift graveyard we’re surrounded by. “I do work for you,” she agrees with a brusque nod. “Which is what I was doing when I got June’s call. You wanted me to find out who Sapphire was, didn’t you?”

I did, but I hadn’t expected her to get on it so fast. She can see the guilt on my face and she nods viciously.

“Okay,” I say. “Do you have a report to give me?”

“Half a report,” she says, “since I was interrupted.”

“Well?”

She arches an insolent eyebrow. “Am I allowed to speak, sir?”

I suppress a growl. “Go ahead.”

Her jaw twitches, but she launches into her spiel. “Sapphire was sold into the ring twenty-four years ago. She tried to escape twice, and both times, she was caught and brought back. She was kept in solitary confinement for thirty days after her attempted escapes, and that seemed to break her will to leave. She had a habit of looking after the younger prostitutes.”

She recites the information as though she’s reading off a report card. Her tone is emotionless and her expression gives nothing away.

“Is that all?”

“As I said, I was interrupted.”

The whole story is nagging at me like a missing tooth. I can’t stop probing, can’t stop wondering. “Something’s off about this.”

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