Yeah, but this time you hurt her…My inner voice can fucking shut up.
Tatiana should have been a diplomat. She’s switched our regular round table in the dining hall to a rectangular one, stealing it from a group of freshmen who know better than to complain.She and Mariya sit at one end, I sit at the other and our friends eat, looking back and forth between us like they’re at a particularly strenuous tennis match.
“How long is this going to drag out until you apologize to Mariya for being an asshole?” Lucca asks me a few days later. “This is spilling over into my relationship, brother.” We’re sitting in our common room with a couple of beers and our textbooks for the Negotiation and Alliances final.
“I’m not apologizing,” I snap, “a Bratva is not a democracy. When I’m Pakhan, how would I handle her leaving a mission just because she hears something? Her motive is not important. She left your team.”
He has the fucking nerve to look disappointed in me. “She’s going to be your wife, not one of yourShestyorka,your errand boys. Sort this out.”
“I don’t need your advice,brother.So stop offering it.”
Lucca pulls on his jacket and leaves me alone. I try to study until I give up and throw my book on the table, getting up for another beer. This needs to end, everything thinking they have a say in what happens between Mariya and me.
As the days pass, I’m impressed with Mariya’s ability to keep her hate nice and fresh. She doesn’t speak to me, or even turn her gaze in my direction. I’m perfectly happy with her staying this way for the rest of the year. No bickering, no snarky remarks. The peace and quiet is great.
Chapter Eighteen
In which justice is served. In the worst possible way.
More Human Than Human - White Zombie
Konstantin…
I’m trying to get back into my morning runs and I start earlier than usual today because I’m pretty sure my first attempt is going to look more like a one-legged octogenarian with a bad back than a man at his physical peak. The sun is sending its first fingers of light over the flat landscape of the island, lighting the sky with layers of purple, orange, and red. Even with the early hours, the campus isn’t quiet. The guards are changing shifts, people working in the greenhouses and other students trying to get in a run in before class.
Son of a bitch.
Ronan, that sneaky fuck, is rounding the corner of Dean’s building with Mariya. They’re laughing as they run and he’s grinning at her like he can see down her sports bra. He probably can, and if he’s looking at my fiancée’s tits I’m going to throw him over the side of the cliff. The rest of their group comes intoview before I can lose my shit about why Mariya is running alone with him. They pass by where I’m standing, not ten feet away, but she never looks in my direction.
A couple of days later, I’m looking up some reference books in the library. Tatiana used to search out the hard-to-find books for Lucca and me because she loves it here; the comfortable, shabby couches, the towering oak bookshelves. She’s not going to help me now, so I’m pawing through the stacks on my own. I hear giggling close by and roll my eyes. Why students are always fucking behind the bookcases here is something I’d never understand, when we have the most comfortable and opulent housing of any college on the planet.
“So, then he says, ‘How did the C4 get in the car trunk?’ and I say-”
Rounding the corner, I see Matt Carlson, one of the new upperclassmen, talking to Mariya. She’s got her study materials spread out on one of the tables and he’s edging out a chair to sit down.
“Carlson, is it?” I say coldly, “You were on Fournier’s team for the challenge.”
He turns to me with an easy smile, he’s got the typical bleached blond surfer boy look. I think he’s in the Assassins division, but he’s kept his head down, I haven’t seen him around much.
“Yeah, Konstantin Turgenev, you’re a legend around these parts.”
“Uh-huh,” I said dryly, “well, I need to have a word with my fiancee here, so if you’d move on, I’d appreciate it.”
Mariya is utterly still, radiating fury like a blast furnace.
Carlson turns back to her when he should move his ass out of the immediate vicinity. “Well, nice to meet you, Mariya.”
He’s mispronouncing her name, drawing out the ‘ah’ and her smile tightens a bit.
“Thanks for the suggestion about the knife work. That’s really going to help on the practical applications final.” He flashes her a grin that I’m sure he thinks he’s charming but when I remove half of his teeth with a single punch it won’t be as pretty. My fist tightens enough that I hear my knuckles creak. He nods to me pleasantly, whistling as he walks off.
Usually, by this point in interactions such as these, Maryia would be snarling at me with a biting comment or two. This time, she reads her book, makes notes, and never looks up.
Resting my hands on the old, scarred wooden table, I watch her for a moment. “How long are you going to pout over this?”
This statement should send her over the table, clawing for my eyes, but… nothing. She continues to read as if I’m not there.
“Mar, honey. I have the one you were looking for-” Tatiana comes around the corner of one of the tall bookshelves, halting to glare at me.
