Velvet Devil: A Russian Mafia Romance (98)

“Why is Eric such a threat to you?” she asks.

Her eyebrows knot together just a little as she puts the pieces together. It only takes her a couple of seconds. She’s too smart for her own good. “He’s searching for me, isn’t he?”

I close my eyes in a grimace and nod. “Yes.”

“Is he going to find me?”

“He’s certainly got a lot of people involved.”

“What do you mean?”

“Interpol and the British police.”

Her eyes go wide. “They’re all looking for me?”

“It would appear so.”

“And you think killing Eric would remove the threat of anyone finding me?” she asks incredulously.

“No, of course not. Bogdan and I were discussing another possibility entirely.”

“Which is?”

I want to tell her my suspicions. But she’d told me only yesterday how much comfort her relationship with Eric gave her during her years of exile. Am I really going to blow up her trust in the man because of an unfounded suspicion that’s yet to be proved?

“It doesn’t matter.”

“You suspect Eric is going to make things difficult for you, and your plan is to… kill him off?”

She sounds completely disgusted, but most of it is to cover up the devastation.

“Camila—”

“Is that how things work in the Bratva? You kill off people at will simply because they’re inconvenient to have around?”

“It’s a complicated world, Camila.”

“And you’re full of bullshit. What gives you the right to play God?”

“No one gave me a goddamn thing,” I snap. “I’ve taken the right.”

Her eyes turn cold. I feel the truce that we’ve spent days building come crumbling down around us. Of course, this was inevitable. We never had a solid foundation.

All we have are secrets upon secrets.

Camila shakes her head. Her hands are trembling. The little daydream we’ve been living in is fading away and in its place is cold, hard reality.

“Maxim is probably looking for me, too, isn’t he?”

My hands clench into fists. “Yes.”

“It must be awfully hard for you to keep me hidden away, out of everyone’s reach.”

I narrow my eyes. “Camila…”

“What’s your plan exactly?” she asks, her tone challenging.

She’s asking for a fight now, and given the current frame of mind I’m in, I’m ready to give her one. I move forward, but this time, she holds her ground.

“Why would I tell you about my plan?”

“Because I’m at the center of it,” she says. “You abducted me because you wanted information on Maxim. But he gave me none. I have nothing of significance to tell you. So why are you keeping me around?”

“To make sure he can’t get to you.”

“What does it matter if he does?” she insists. “Why do you care?”

I don’t know what she expects me to say here. Make some bold declaration of love for her? Tell her how important she is to me? Tell her that I can’t live without her?

I’m not that man.

And even if I could make myself form those words, they wouldn’t be true.

I can live without her. I was born out of my father’s ambition and his ruthless cruelty. I was born to lead the Bratva, and that is what I’ll do—whether Camila is by my side or not.

But I’m also starting to realize that letting her go is going to be far, far harder than it should be.

“Isaak!” she says, her voice rising fast. “Answer the fucking question. Why are you keeping me here? What are your plans for me?”

“My plans are my business.”

She steps in front of me as though she’s worried I’m going to leave the room. “Is all this worth it?” she asks, her expression turning from bitter to imploring. “What purpose does it all serve?”

“Purpose?” I repeat bitingly. “This is my life.”

“So change it,” she says, as though it’s the simplest choice in the world. “You can walk away from it all. You don’t have to be the Bratva don. You don’t have to live your life based on revenge.”

I shake my head. “You don’t know what you’re asking. You think I should just leave Maxim to his own devices? Call off the manhunt and let him do whatever the fuck he wants without consequence?”

“Yes,” she says fervently. “Yes, that’s exactly what I think you should do.”

She reaches out and takes my hand in both of hers. Her eyes are bright and desperate.

“You don’t have to be like your father, Isaak. I know being the ruthless, unforgiving don is what you were trained to be. But… you’re your own man now. You can choose to be different.”

She’s asking me to be someone else. Someone different. She wants me to transform into one of the heroes in the books she’s always reading.

And what do I expect? She’s not from my world. She doesn’t understand what it means to be Bratva. How can she? What we want is lightyears apart.

She wants peace and quiet. She wants the predictability of the mundane. She wants boring and stable. She wants to read books and hold down a good job and reunite with her sister.