Page 52 of Wicked Vow

“A man will do strange things when he thinks the woman he–”

“Mikhail, no.” I shake my head, brushing my thumb gently over his swollen lips. “Don’t say that. Not here, and not unless you’re very sure it’s true. I don’t see how it can be.”

“Viktor said something very much like that.” Mikhail looks at me, his eyes heavy and full of a dark emotion. “Not saying it doesn’t make it any less true. I’m going to die, Natalia. Viktor is going to kill me for defying him. And I need you to know–”

“Why did you do that?” I don’t mean to interrupt him again, but the words break through in a burst of emotion. “You left the roses, didn’t you? You’ve been following me. You were there tonight. Why? It can’t be worth it, to risk your life like that–”

“I already told you why–or tried to,” Mikhail murmurs, his voice low and sad. “Natalia, I meant what I said at the club tonight. I made a mistake. I was wrong for what I did to you. I wanted to find a way to show you, but–”

He shakes his head, grunting in pain as he does. “It’s too late. I wanted to see you one last time, and if I can’t tell you how I feel exactly–I can at least ask you to forgive me. I don’t expect you to. But I can tell you, one more time, that I know I was wrong. I was so blinded by anger and vengeance that I never stopped to think that I could have gotten it all wrong. And if things had been different–”

“I know.” I step closer, close enough that I’m nearly touching him, my hand gently cupping his jaw as I lean up to brush my lips against his. I feel the shudder that goes through him and hear his low groan as he tries to lean into the kiss. I can feel the longing in him, the need, and I slide my hand behind his head, pressing my fingers against the back of his neck as I deepen the kiss, just for a moment.

I know it’s the last one. I know that I should be glad about that, that I should feel free, knowing that when I leave this room, Mikhail never will. But I can’t. All I feel at the idea of it is tearing grief, a feeling that all of this could have been avoided somehow, without the missteps and assumptions, and miscommunications that led us here.

“This isn’t what I want,” I whisper against his lips. “I don’t want you hurt. I don’t want you dead. That doesn’t fix anything. It doesn’t make anything better.”

I step back, the moment before I hear the door open. I hear the footsteps behind me, two sets of them, and Viktor and Levin walk up, Viktor’s face as hard and impassive as before.

“Well?” he asks sharply. “Did you get to say what you needed to, Kasilov?”

Mikhail says nothing, and I turn to Viktor, my heart hammering in my chest.

“I know he disobeyed you and flaunted your orders,” I say calmly. “But the rules you put in place were formyprotection. It’s me that Mikhail hurt. You even said, from the beginning, that he’d proved his loyalty to you, that he didn’t betray you. You shunned him for my protection. So I’m asking you not to kill him.”

I see Mikhail flinch with surprise, and Viktor’s eyes widen just a little. Levin’s mouth twitches, as if something he expected has been confirmed.

“Regardless of what he’s done,” I say slowly, “he’s the father of my child. A child that I believe I’m going to keep.” I want Mikhail to hear that,especiallyif Viktor doesn’t listen to what I have to say. Even if I change my mind in the time I have left, I want Mikhail to believe it.

“Please don’t kill him.” I tilt my chin up, looking squarely at Viktor. “I’m asking you for a favor. You’ve said you were in debt to me. I know you’ve done things already to try to fulfill that debt–for me, for Ruby, but I’m asking you for this. Give him another chance.”

Viktor’s jaw clenches, and I can see the small muscle there jump, his eyes narrowing. “It’s not the way of the Bratva to allow this kind of insolence to go unpunished.”

“You have punished him.” I pull myself up as tall and straight as I can, gathering every bit of the bearing I used to have as Natalia Obelensky, speaking to Viktor as a Bratva princess, rather than a runaway ex-pat under his protection. “I can see that just by looking at him. Consider what you’ve done to him tonight a warning, and give him another chance to leave of his own accord. Please,” I add, and I see Levin’s mouth twitch again.

“I think it’s worth considering,pakhan,” Levin says quietly. “She’s right that the order was made for her sake. And she is pregnant with his child. It’s worth considering–”

“I heard her,” Viktor snaps, a touch irritably. “Fortunately, I don’twantKasilov dead. He was a faithful part of my Bratva for many years. I don’t want him dead over his foolishness.But,” he adds, his voice sharper now, “there will be no third chance. If he does not leave, if he repeats these ‘mistakes,’ I will have no choice but to kill him.”

“I didn’t mean tonight was a mistake,” Mikhail growls thickly from where he’s chained. Viktor and I shoot him a glare in the same instant, and he narrows his eyes.

“Careful, Kasilov,” Viktor says sharply. “Don’t give me a reason to change my mind yet again.”

“Come with me, Natalia,” Levin says quietly, stepping forward and reaching gently for my arm. “Viktor will get him out of here. You should go back home.”

“He won’t be hurt?” I glance back at Mikhail and then at Viktor. “You’re finished punishing him?”

“I keep my word,” Viktor says tightly. “Hopefully, for his sake, Mikhail can do the same.”

“Come on,” Levin says again, a little more urgently. “Let’s go, Natalia.”

I know that they’re worried about what Mikhail might do once he’s brought down, that he might try to hurt me in some way or take me hostage. Strangely, I’m not. I can see from his face that the fight has gone out of him, at least for now. I’m not sure it’s even entirely sunk in that he’s not going to die tonight.

Regardless, he’s gotten what he asked for–what he needed. He saw me one last time. And ithasto be the last time, I know that.

Walking out of the room, leaving him behind without a backward glance, hurts just as much as it did the last time.

Maybe even more.

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