“No. What are you doing here?” It clicks that she’s alone and I add, “You didn’t drive here, did you?”
She pushes passed me, walking into my foyer. “Always with the fucking questions. I can’t believe after all this time, you greet me like that.”
I turn to look at her as she stands there, her smile taken down a notch as she looks me up and down like a hungry lion. “You look good.”
“It’s late, Kat,” I tell her. “What do you want?”
“You,” she says as she saunters over to me. She reaches out to touch my chest and I bat her hand away. “Don’t be like that, baby. Listen, this game of hard to get has been fun andeverything, but don’t you think it’s gone far enough? I miss you. I miss us. What do you say we go upstairs and make up like we used to?”
“No,” I say firmly.
She blinks, her drunken eyes studying me for a long few seconds. “That’s it? Just ‘no’? What’s gotten into you?” She goes to touch me again and this time, I slap her hand hard. She takes a half-step back in shock.
“You need to leave,” I tell her and walk to the door. I spot one of my soldiers patrolling a few yards away and I wave him to come in.
“Hey, hold on,” she says. “Let’s just talk, all right? Please? Can we just talk?”
The soldier starts walking toward my open door, so I turn to her and say, “You’ve got about as long as it takes for Vincent to get here.”
She scowls at me. “Are you really going to have him throw me out?”
“He’s going to drive you home. You’re drunk.”
“I’m not drunk,” she says indignantly. “God, you are so judgmental!”
I don’t have the patience for any of this. “I swear to God, Kat?—”
“Okay, okay,” she says. “I just… I came over because I miss you. I got to thinking about you and how good it was between us… We were really good, weren’t we? Good for each other. You were always there to look out for me and all that. You held me up when I was down?—”
“And what did you do for me, Katerina?” I say. The thin thread of my patience has broken. “What did you do for me? You manipulated and lied to me?—”
“I thought you were going to leave me,” she insisted as she stepped back from me. “You said that you could never choose anything over the Bratva. What was I supposed to think? No one says that. Especially if they love someone. If they want to marry them. And once upon a time, you wanted to marry me.”
I’ve never hit a woman out of anger. It’s something that I’ve prided myself on despite the acts of some of my contemporaries. But this time I have to clench my fists to stop myself. “That’s over, Kat. Long over,” I tell her. “Let me be clear so there’s no more confusion. I do not want you. I willneverwant you again. And most importantly…” I lean into her face. “I will never forgive you for what you did to me. Do you understand that, Katerina? You are not welcome here.”
Her eyes welled up with tears. “You don’t mean that.”
“I have never meant anything more in my life.”
Her bottom lip trembles and she starts to speak, but headlights shine through my door, breaking up the moment. I turn in time to see Mikki’s car parking in front of my steps. I turn back to her.
“Get out. Now.”
She searches my eyes for something. Maybe sympathy or empathy or some rope she can hold onto so that she can stay a little longer. There is none. She burned this bridge long ago.
As Mikki approaches, she pushes past me and walks out. I turn in time to see her nearly knock Vincent over. “Take her home,” I call out to him. He nods and turns to follow her.
Mikki’s watching Vincent argue with Kat as he escorts her to his car as he comes up the stairs. He gets about halfway up and says, “Looks like you’re having an eventful night.”
“It never ends with that one,” I tell him.
We watch as Vincent gets her into his car, then drives off. Mikki snorts. “It’s not too late to tell him to drive her to the river, you know. She could be a problem later on.”
I scoff. “Kat’s a fly, annoying but generally harmless. When she sobers up, she’ll remember what the price is for messing with me.” Mikki nods and walks the rest of the way up to me. “What brings you here at this hour?”
“I bring news. All good. Shall we?” He motions for us to go inside. I nod and we go back into my home.
“I hope this is regarding Maksim’s killer if you’ve come all the way out here at three in the morning,” I say to him.
