Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 68102 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68102 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
It had hurt.
So fucking much.
“Why he told me all this while driving me home from a party, I don’t know. I’d been drinking and he was the designated sober driver. Perhaps he thought it was easier to tell me while I was drunk. I’m not sure why he didn’t just disappear on me. Ghost me. I . . . I got mad, so I hit him. I’d never hit anyone before. Just at that moment, a car pulled out in front of us. He lost control of the vehicle. As soon as we went off the road, the car started rolling.”
“Where the fuck was Dmitri?” Sacha asked.
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “But when I woke up, Dmitri was in the driver’s seat. Dead. And I couldn’t feel my legs.”
She’d been terrified. So scared.
“Mike stood over me, and for a moment, I thought he was going to kill me. He said as much. He told me that he should kill me because I was a loose end, and he shouldn’t let me live. I thought that was the end. He said that if I told anyone, he’d come back and finish the job. So it would be in my best interests to keep quiet, especially since he was sure that my cousin wouldn’t like to find out I’d been sleeping with the enemy. That I had betrayed h-him and had given away family secrets.”
“Sofia, you didn’t know who he was. You didn’t betray me.”
“It felt like I had,” she said with a sob. “That’s when I learned that he’d been paying off Dmitri, who had also been feeding him bits of information. Things he’d have to make clear had come from me if I blabbed. But I would never . . . I’d never betray you, Sacha.”
His frown deepened.
Her throat closed over. Oh, God. He didn’t believe her.
“How the fuck did Oleg know about this?” he asked.
“I don’t know. But he must have known the video wasn’t enough to get me to do what he wanted. That he’d need more.”
“Wonder why he even bothered with the threat of the video,” Sacha mused.
“I think it’s because that was tangible proof. He thought that would keep him alive because I wouldn’t want to risk it getting into the wrong hands.”
“I need to speak to Oleg. Find out what the fuck he knows and who told him all of this. He’s obviously got connections. He knows that I shot Danill, even if the video was fake. And he has to know who this Rafe Ramirez guy is.”
“What if . . . what if he finds out? Mike? I mean, Rafe?” she whispered.
“I will keep you safe, Kotyonok,” he told her fiercely. “You believe me?”
She nodded. She did. But she was still scared. “I would never betray you.”
Sacha gathered her into his arms, shocking her. “This is my fault.”
“What? Why?”
“Because you should know that you can come to me about anything. You have this bad habit of self-sacrifice. Of taking everything on yourself and not letting me help you.”
“I told you, I don’t want to be a burden. A disappointment.”
He leaned back and stared down at her. “And what if I told you I only ever took all this on for you?”
Her gaze rose in shock to his. “What?”
“It was all for you, Kotyonok. I stayed for you. I could have left after your father died. Could have run off and disappeared. I stayed because you are my sister. I’m the fucking Pakhan because I know this position will keep you safe. You are all that’s important in my life, Sofia. And to know that bastard was harming you . . .”
“He wasn’t for a start,” she said hastily. “He was just a creep. But he told me he just wanted to get into your good books. Something must have changed, though. Maybe when he saw you didn’t want to let him close, he started to take his frustrations out on me.”
“Fuck. And you hid that from me? From everyone?”
She nodded. “At first, it was just verbal. But then it grew more physical, which mostly was easy to hide. And it was only when he would catch me alone in the restaurant, so it really didn’t happen all that often.”
Sacha ran his hand over his face, looking exhausted. “I don’t know whether you’re trying to justify the abuse or make me feel better about it, but I don’t care if it only happened once. It happened. And that is unacceptable. If anyone touches you, if they say bad things to you, if they give you a fucking paper cut, I want to know. Hear me?”
“Y-yes.”
“He’s a dead man. You get that, right? He will never harm you again. No one will.”
She had a bad feeling that she was going to end up in a large protective bubble.