She shudders.
“He trapped me. Made me be his executioner, in exchange for keeping you and Katarina alive.”
“His favorite trick,” Dimitri sneers. “He always saw loving a woman as a weakness, never a strength.”
Sver’s hands clench into fists. “He’s about to learn the truth.”
The words ring with an ominous threat that has me holding Sasha closer. Much as I’d like to believe that Sver is willing to turn against Dimitri’s father, I can’t trust it. Sasha’s life is the one that I’d risk if I did. “Understand that we’re going to have to kill you.”
Sasha gasps, her hand tapping on my chest.
I cover her fingers with my own. “You’ll hurt yourself.”
But Sasha slithers from my arms, sitting on the floor. “I’m tired,” she murmurs as she sits between my feet. “Tired of being a victim. But also, just tired.” She leans forward, looking in Sver’s eyes. “If you’re here to kill me, just do it, and then it will be done.”
I bend down and yank her up again, because fuck that. I remember Dimitri’s warning that Sasha was fragile. I know I’ve pushed her to the brink, and this is on me. I’m prepared to burn in hell.
But I will not let anyone else hurt her. “If anyone is dying here, it’s me,” I grind out as I carry her to the door. “No one, including you, is hurting you again.”
“Wait,” Sver calls out. “Don’t leave.”
I don’t stop, but Sasha starts wiggling from my arms again. I’m strong enough to hold her physically. But emotionally, she’s turned me from a lion to some stray tomcat. I try to hold her. “No, sweetheart. Don’t trust him.”
“I’ve learned my lesson about trust,” she fires back, and I wince as I ease her back to the ground.
Her feet bare, her clothes still covered in blood, her silky brown hair swinging down her back, she walks over to where Sver lays on the ground. I follow, not even a full step behind.
Sver looks at her and then at me, and he gives me an almost imperceptible nod. What the hell does that mean?
Sasha sits down in front of him, cross-legged. “He never loved me.”
“No,” Sver shakes his head.
“I thought I was unlovable.”
“You’re not.” He looks back at me again, as I squat just behind her, coiled and ready to take action. “He’s just not your father. That’s why he didn’t love you, and besides,” Sver looks away, “you’re like me.”
“How’s that?”
“We don’t…we don’t show our emotions the same way as other people. We feel them, we feel them all, we just don’t…”
I hear Sasha’s sharp intake of breath as she looks at the glass doors. I can see her profile, and I catch the tears in her eyes. “Why are you here?”
“I stayed in Russia, stayed with that Bratva filth to protect you. Once Dimitri took you, I didn’t even wait for Ivan to return, I came here to find you.”
He slowly reaches out a hand and Killian cocks the gun.
But Sasha holds out her bandaged fingers. “I can’t go with you. My place is here, with my husband.”
“I know,” he answers. “You couldn’t come with me anyway.”
“Where are you going?”
“To find Ivan and end this once and for all,” Sver lets go of her hand. “But first I need to know what happened to your hands.”
“Broken mirror,” she answers. “We had our first fight, and I was very angry.”
“Temper like your mother,” he smiles.
