Velvet Devil: A Russian Mafia Romance (96)

Though the absence that follows when he pulls away stings more.

I watch him walk into the bathroom on the other side of his gigantic room. He shuts the door with a soft bang and a few seconds later, I hear the shower turn on.

Confident that he won’t be able to hear me, I call Brianna. It takes a few rings, but Brianna picks up at last. Her voice sounds blurry and muffled though.

“Hello?”

“Bree, it’s me.”

“Cami?” she croaks.

And that’s when I remember the time difference. I feel like a total putz, but I’m selfish enough to not want to hang up.

“Bree, I’m so sorry. You’re sleeping, aren’t you?”

“Well, I was,” she says, whispering a little. I hear movement on the other end and then the click of a door. “Okay. I’m in the living room now.”

“What time is it?”

“Almost five in the a.m.”

“Fuck, I’m an idiot.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ve been waiting to hear from you. You’re okay, right?”

“I am,” I tell her hurriedly. “Everything’s fine. I just… I got excited about calling you and I forgot that Scotland is four hours ahead.”

“Um, Scotland?”

“Yeah, I’m in Scotland at the moment.”

“With… Isaak Vorobev?”

She says his name like he’s a stranger. But then, that’s exactly what he is to her. Which makes me realize that he’s no longer a stranger to me.

And that realization feels… transformative somehow, in a way I can’t quite explain.

“Yes, with Isaak.”

There’s a long pause on the other line. I want to break the silence, but my heart is pounding really hard and I don’t even know why.

“Cami… what’s going on?” she asks, and I know exactly what she means.

“I slept with him last night, Bree,” I admit, lowering my voice just to be doubly safe. “And this morning. And… neither one of those times was the first.”

“Well…” she says, leaving the word hanging on its own for an eternity. “Fuck!”

A burst of almost hysterical laughter bursts from my lips. The absurdity of my life. I can’t quite get over it. I can barely begin to wrap my head around it.

“Cami, are you falling for him?”

“That… would be insane, wouldn’t it?”

“Whether it is or it isn’t is immaterial,” she says. “Are you falling for him?”

“I… oh Bree, I don’t know.”

“You slept with him. More than once.”

“Yes.”

“Do you want to sleep with him again?”

God help me.

“I do.”

“Fuck.”

“Stop saying that.”

“I don’t know how else to express myself.”

Panic bubbles up in my chest, and I don’t know how to tell Bree that I need her now more than ever. But I force down that need. What I actually need is to stop relying so much on her. She’s already raising my daughter for me. I’ve asked too much of her already.

“Does he treat you well?” she says suddenly.

“What?”

“Focus, love,” Bree says, using her mother’s-in-charge voice. “Does he treat you well? Is he kind to you? Does he make you feel all warm and gooey inside?”

I’m silent so long that Bree actually checks to make sure she hasn’t lost me.

“Cami… you there?”

“I’m here.”

“Are you going to answer the question?”

“Bree, I can’t… I can’t say it out loud.”

“Well… fuuu… fudge.”

I almost laugh. “Nice save.”

“Cami, honey?”

“Yes.”

“If you mean what you’re saying… then you need to tell him about Jo.”

And there it is. The thing I need to hear, but don’t want to face. The big secret sitting between Isaak and me. The truth that I want to protect at all costs.

I don’t need Bree to say it to know what I have to do. But it helps all the same.

“You need to tell him about Jo, Cami,” Bree repeats when she gets no response from me.

I take a deep breath. “I know.”





37





Isaak





“Bogdan.”

The line crackles for a second before it clears out. Sometimes, the connection gets a little gravelly in certain rooms in the castle.

“How’d it go?” he asks.

“It went… better than I thought.” Although I’m talking more about everything that followed Lachlan’s funeral than the funeral itself.

“You told his parents that they’d still receive his salary?”

“They refused it at first,” I tell him. “But they’re good people. Once Mr. Murphy realized I wasn’t going to budge, he accepted. They need the money.”

“I’m glad they’ll be provided for.”

“I’m starting to get the feeling that you’re gearing up to tell me something I’m not going to like,” I say.