“Tia?”
I tell Andrei about the memory, and he listens with his eyes narrowed. “Why would your father have to tell your brother to be nice to you? Did he want to hurt you back then?”
“Boris has never been violent with me. I don’t understand what it means. Or what my father meant when he said he would get nothing.”
“It sounds like your father was worried about how Boris was treating you.” Andrei’s eyes are dark with worry. But he’s wrong. It has to be a misunderstanding.
I shake my head, adamant that it’s just my memory that has mixed things up. I probably heard wrong.
The only person who has ever been aggressive with me at home is Van. Van is the asshole.
“I think Van was working on his own. Boris would never let him do that to me.”
The words are tight in my throat. Boris lets Van talk to me however he wants. He didn’t even get angry with him when I told Boris he slapped me.
But Boris loves me.He’s always kept me safe, kept me in the house where no one can harm me.
I bite my lower lip, trying to figure out what is going on.
Chapter 15 - Andrei
The fire crackles, breaking the silence of the cabin. Tia is curled up against me; her body has stopped shaking, and she appears to be calmer. I don’t think she realizes how badly shaken she was. She was so pale on the drive home, and even when I spoke to her, she didn’t register it. She just stared blankly out of the window.
At the cabin, while I got the fire going, she stood in the middle of the room staring blankly at the wall for ages.
It’s only now in the last half hour that she’s started talking and easing up. The shock hit her hard.
She’s in denial about what happened, though.
I know Van. He’s a pit bull. He’s ruthless and deadly—but he wouldn’t dare do a fucking thing without Boris’s permission.
He doesn’t have the balls to act alone. Especially not when it comes to Boris’s family—his half-sister.
No.
Boris ordered his henchman to take that shot.
For some reason, he wants his sister dead.
But for the life of me, I can’t figure out why.
Tia shifts uncomfortably, and I notice something is bothering her.
With a little bit of encouragement, she tells me about what she’s just remembered. I listen, my heart pulling tighter in my chest.
There has always been something about Boris that told me he has no soul, no heart inside his body. He is barely human. Even his own father was worried about his coldness.
It’s obvious, but she’s refusing to see it. She’s hell-bent on denying it.
I could argue with her, but now is not the time to put any more pressure on her, not after what she’s been through tonight.
Wrapping my arm around her, I pull her close to me again, trying to let her know she’s safe by cradling her in my warmth. Tonight was the first time I’ve ever felt genuine fear. When I thought I was about to lose her, the intensity of my emotions was terrifying.
I don’t think that image, of Van lifting his gun, her right in his line of sight, will ever leave me.
Thinking of it now, my stomach knots and churns with anxiety.
I can’t lose her. I never want to be without her.
