Velvet Devil: A Russian Mafia Romance (51)

“And that’s a bad thing?”

I shoot him a glare. “Their marriage was—”

“Successful.’

“Is that what you’d call it?”

“She was a good Bratva wife. Papa never had any complaints.”

“He may have respected her,” I say, “but he never loved her. He wasn’t capable of loving anything other than the Bratva.”

“Mama knows you’re not like him.”

“I’m exactly like him,” I growl. I wrench up my sleeve and brandish my scarred arm. “He made sure of that.”

“You are what you choose to be, brother,” Bogdan says quietly.

“Well, I choose to be don.”

“It doesn’t make you weak to choose something else, too.”

“I’m pretty sure our father would disagree. The man with the crown can have no weak points in his armor—even you remember him repeating that over and over again.”

He sighs like I’m missing his point. “Of course I remember. Don’t think I don’t know that’s why you let Camila disappear into witness protection.”

“Excuse me?”

“You wanted her to be safe. But you also wanted her to disappear from your radar. So that you could go back to having no weaknesses.”

I’m angry but with no outlet for it. So I sit back in my seat and glower at my smirking brother.

“What?” Bogdan asks when I don’t stop looking at him.

I shrug and exhale my unspent anger. “Sometimes, I forget how perceptive you are.”

“Don’t forget handsome.”

I laugh. “Top two of the Vorobev brothers.”

He gives me the finger, but a moment later, that serious gaze is back on his face. “I’m just saying, you can be both, you know?” he says. “You can be a good husband and a good don. One doesn’t have to come at the expense of the other.”

“Doesn’t it?”

“No. Of course not.”

I wave a dismissive hand. “It doesn’t matter anyway. The title of husband holds no real weight here. It was a power play, a way to needle Maxim. Another revenge plot. It’s not real. The marriage is not real.”

Bogdan snorts at that one. “Hate to break it to you, sobrat, but whatever’s between you and Camila… there’s nothing fake about it.”

I frown. “What do you know about it?”

“As you so aptly pointed out, I am extremely perceptive. There’s a definite connection between you two and it’s not one-sided.”

I consider that for a moment. Given how Camila had reacted to my kiss upstairs, I can’t pretend that I don’t already know that what he’s saying is true.

But just because she may have feelings for me doesn’t mean she doesn’t have feelings for Maxim, too.

Two things can be true at the same time.

“Where’s Vlad?” I ask, changing direction.

“Downstairs, monitoring the tails,” Bogdan replies. “Why?”

“I want him to accompany Camila out of the manor tomorrow,” I tell him. “Edith will be joining her.”

“Where’s she going?”

“Shopping trip,” I say. “All the clothes she has are what I’ve picked out for her. She resents the amount of control I’ve exerted on her life.”

“So you’re trying to make a peace offering.”

I snort. “Trust me—a shopping spree won’t cut it. She’s not the type of woman who’s going to be satisfied with expensive clothes or fancy dinners.”

Bogdan looks at me knowingly. “You know that’s why you’re so attracted to her, right?”

“The attraction will fade. It always does.”

“It only takes one woman to change that.”

“She’s not it,” I say adamantly. “No woman is.”

“You have to get married at some point. You’ll need children.”

“Why?” I demand. “If we’re talking successors, you are mine.”

Bogdan places his hand over his heart. “Big brother, you flatter me.”

“Stop being precious about this.”

Bogdan grins. “I’m not suited for that seat you’re in, Isaak. You know that.”

“I didn’t think I was, either.”

“Bullshit. If any man was born for this life, it’s you.”

“That sounds like a fucking insult.”

Bogdan laughs. “Only partially.”

“If I marry, I’ll marry a woman who can take on the role of being a Bratva wife,” I say firmly. “And Camila is not that.”

“No?” Bogdan asks. “She certainly has the fire for it.”

So he’s noticed. I have, too. Out loud, though, I say, “It’s not the same thing. She’s a normal girl who’s led a normal life—"

“Up until six years ago,” Bogdan interrupts. “Up until she met you.”

“Yeah, and she’s hated every minute of it. She hates me for the sacrifices she was forced to make because I decided I had to talk to her that night.”

“Love and hate aren’t so far apart, you know.”