Page 85 of Betrayal and Vows

"You have to. Pack tonight. Disappear. I'll cover for you as long as I can."

"No."

He stops dead. "What do you mean, no?"

I turn to face him.

My oldest friend.

The only person who's known the truth for thirty years.

Dmitri has been there since the beginning of Anton. He saw me as the broken little boy. He heard me cry myself to sleep at night those first couple of years.

Guilt by association is a real thing. I’m putting him in danger.

But I can’t stop the way I feel.

"I mean she's mine,” I say.

"She's Mikhail Orlov's."

I feel my jaw clench; my hands curl into fists. "She's mine," I repeat.

Dmitri stares at me like I've grown a second head. "This isn't some woman you picked up in a bar. This is Vadim Orlov's future daughter-in-law. You're playing with forces that will erase you from existence."

"Let them try. They failed once."

"Fuck me." He laughs, but there's no humor in it. "You're actually going to die for her."

I don't hesitate. "Yes."

The word hangs between us.

Dmitri studies my face, doing his best to read me. Looking for cracks in my resolve, some sign that sanity might return. He won't find it.

"She's just a woman, Anton."

"No." I check my watch. Almost five. Almost time to collect her for dinner. "She's my woman."

"Your woman is going to get you killed."

"Then I die."

He grabs my shoulders, shaking me. "Listen to yourself. You sound insane."

Maybe I am. But I've lived thirty years as a ghost, and two weeks as a man. I know which I choose.

"I won't abandon her to them."

"Them?" His eyes narrow. "You mean your family?"

"They're not my family." The words come out like shards of glass.

"And now you're handing them the perfect excuse to finish the job."

“I’m getting her away from here.”

His brows shoot up.