“I’m trying to process how you did it so easily.”
“So, you think I’m a traitor now?” Her voice sounds so incredibly hurt.
“No,” I rush to assure her. “No. It’s just my mind processes differently than yours. I understand why you did it, Imogen. Our lives were at stake. I just wish it was easier for me to break the rule, that's all.”
She frames my face in her hands. “Don’t beat yourself up, please. I knew I was the one who had to do it. So I did. And thankfully everything worked out.”
“I can’t imagine you promising Kirill Zhen’s location worked out smoothly with Constantine. He gave a direct order.”
“Not at first,” she admits. “But Kirill proposed a business deal with Constantine and Carina in exchange for her whereabouts.”
“A deal,” I echo dubiously.
“The gun trade.“
I’m not following. “Why would Kirill propose a business deal? He despises us.”
“Because you did business with Tao knowing the truth. But he also came to my defense.”
I sound like a fucking parrot as I repeat. “Your defense.”
“Constantine and Carina were not happy with me and rightfully so. I betrayed their trust. I understand that. And so when Carina told me the gravity of what I’ve done Kirill came to my aid and proposed a deal.”
My brows scrunch together. “I feel like I’m missing something. Why is Kirill willingly helping you?”
“Because he’s taken a liking to me.”
The primal beast within me roars. I grind down on my molars. “You’re mine, Imogen. You wear my ring. You bear my last name. Your heart and soul belongs to me. No one else.”
She lightly pats my chest. “Believe me, he’s well aware. He sees me as a sister, Rico.”
“I don’t want him to see you as anything,” I rumble.
“Well, sorry to disappoint but I think you’re not going to be able to change the boogeyman’s mind. And he did help us escape.”
“We wouldn’t have been in that predicament in the first place if it wasn’t for him. The bastard,” I grit out.
“True,” she agrees. “But I think Kirill may be a bit misunderstood.”
I scoff. A viscous jealousy towards the Russian has me wanting to hunt him down and kill him. My wife shouldn’t be feeling anything for him at all. “Don’t extend your empathy to him.”
Her lips twitch. “It’s. . .complicated.”
“No, it’s not,” I say adamantly. “Feel nothing towards him. Unless you want me to kill him.” A roll of her eyes tells me she’s not taking this seriously enough. “I mean it.”
“I know you do,” she says easily. “Your jealousy knows no bounds.”
“I am limitless when it comes to you.” This pleases her. “You’re leaving out an important detail.”
“Hmm?”
“Why isn’t our revenge necessary?”
“When I woke I wasn’t in a holding cell. I was in my bedroom and ma was there.” Her voice begins to tremble and I try my best in holding her tighter to console her. “He hit her, Rico. Ma kept wanting to save me and pa abused her because of it. I couldn’t forgive him after that and neither could she.”
“You killed him.”
She nods her head against my chest. “Once you were safe in the vehicle I went back inside to rescue ma. I couldn’t, wouldn’t, leave her behind. He had her in my room tied up and with her mouth taped shut. And I just lost it, Rico. Everything I felt. The betrayal. The Heartbreak. The abuse. I did it without thinking. And when I realized what I had done after the first shot I emptied the clip in his chest. It was so easy. Killing him. Killing Sebastian. Killing the soldiers. It was easy, Rico.“
