And here it is.
“You’re welcome,” I say dryly, standing several paces away from the jet while the crew begins their maintenance.
“Don’t even start, Sergey,” Roman returns, leaving no room for goofing off. “I just got off the phone with our lawyer in New York. You’ve married her without thinking to run any of it by me? Do you realize how many problems you’ve just stirred up?”
Pulling in a breath, I urge myself to stand my ground and defend my actions to some capacity.
Knowing Roman, he can be brutal when something doesn’t go his way, and it takes reasoning to get him to see it from a new angle. If he decides to be swayed at all.
“She’s the perfect leverage, Roman. Yuri won’t be able to ignore this, and if marrying her to one of us will pull him out into the open, then so be it. Someone had to force his hand, and it didn’t seem like anyone else was willing to.”
I swear, an irritated growl comes from his end before his tense words reach me. “Nobody was jumping the gun because I said not to. BecauseIdidn’t clear it. I told you to keep an eye on her, not pick her up off the street like a fucking stray dog.”
The raising of his tone is nothing new for me, but hearing it now after everything I did to make this happen has me on the verge of snapping.
Clenching my jaw, I try my hardest not to let that irritation slip. “I handled it.”
“You compromised the assignment, Sergey! I gave you full rein to handle the situation because I assumed you understood the basics of surveillance. The Balakin girl was never supposed to be aware of you or your job until we had reason to believe she was working with her brother, and Christ's sakes, you let that all go to shit,” Roman barks at me, not at all pulling his punches. “You got yourself hitched and flew her to Vegas without my clearance. Do you understand how that risks every aspect of our mission? Every piece has been delicately laid, every man put into place as they should be to make sure we handle this properly. Now Yuri will know we’re onto him, and he’ll see this as direct retaliation.”
“Isn’t that how this will end anyway? With retaliation from both sides?” I question, struggling to hide just how angry I was getting in return. “One way or another, we were going to hit back for everything he has done, so why not get ahead of him?”
“That’s the problem. We don’t know without a shadow of a doubt that Yuri has been orchestrating the attacks, and now, if it isn’t him, he’ll interpret this as us needlessly hitting first. That’s what we were trying to find out, and your dumb ass moved without my permission.”
It takes everything in my power not to crush the phone in my hand.
“I did what needed to be done.”
“No, you acted impulsively,” Roman growls out. “You always do this. And you wonder why I can’t trust you with the bigger jobs.”
That nearly sends me over the edge. That rage spikes in my chest, and I can’t keep up the dam of pent-up frustration anymore.
“I did what I thought would help everyone by keeping Katya close, and so we can use her to get the upper hand. But you don’t see it that way, do you? You never do. Instead, you sit back and treat me like I don’t know any better,” I retort, barely keeping myself together.
“Because you prove me right time and time again!”
“Go to hell,” I mutter, hitting the end button before Roman can say anything else.
The call cuts off, leaving me to the lingering noise of the jet in the background.
Huffing out a breath, I run a hand through my hair to calm the pulsing rage beneath my skin.
Roman doesn’t trust me, and he never has…at least, not with real power or decisions that truly matter. And still, something as minor as tying up a loose end has him losing his mind.
He thinks I can’t handle the simplest jobs without fucking up, but this time, I’m going to prove him wrong.
Katya is the key. She doesn’t know it yet, but she’ll be the reason Yuri comes out crawling on his knees.
And when this is over, Roman won’t be able to deny that I was right all along.
When I finally reach the vehicle waiting for us, I climb into the back seat wordlessly next to Kat.
Her expression is made of pure ice while she stares out the window, refusing to say anything to me.
She’s furious with me.
Good. I can work with that. At the very least, she feels something. And eventually, I’ll make her feel everything.
At this point, I don’t know who I’m doing all of this for, but I don’t care.
