I felt Beatrice go completely still beside me.
“Fire?” she whispered, turning to look at me. “What is he talking about?”
I hadn’t known, when I had set that fire, that she had been kidnapped as a teenager and left tied up in a burning building. I hadn’t known her brothers had rescued her, but the trauma still lived. If I had, I would never have done that.
“Tell her, Pavlov,” Dante challenged. “Tell her how you started that fire to create chaos so you could kidnap her.”
The blood drained from Beatrice’s face. She pulled her wrist from my grip. “Is that true?” she asked, her voice cracking.
I wanted to turn to her and explain, beg for her forgiveness in the role I played in making her relive her greatest fear, but right then, I was in a room full of people watching.
I was the Pakhan of the Pavlov family. I had to be ruthless, especially now.
“It was effective, wasn’t it?” I said coldly, hating the look of betrayal on Beatrice’s face. “I got your sister just where I needed her.”
Around us, I heard gasps as people realized what this marriage meant I had done. This was a declaration of war.
Beatrice took another step back, her eyes wide with hurt. “You used my fear of fire against me?”
“Business is business,” I said, hating myself for being so cruel, but I was convinced I could explain this all to her later. “Nothing personal.”
She recoiled as if I’d slapped her, and I had to stop myself from reaching for her and telling her I was sorry, and that it wasn’t supposed to happen like this.
“You bastard,” Caspian snarled, moving forward.
Two of my brothers immediately stepped between us and drew out their weapons.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” I said, grabbing Beatrice’s hand. She tried to break free, but I held tight, stepping back and away from her brothers. “This is my turf, remember?”
“You’re going to pay for this, Arko!” Federico roared from his spot. “We’re going to come and get our sister back, then fucking bury you six feet under.”
“Oh yeah?” I laughed back, cruel and vicious with a bite. “Looks like I’m winning so far, so we’ll see how it goes.”
And then, I nodded to my brothers, who immediately became a barrier between us, allowing me to pull a petrified Beatrice away from here.
Chapter 12 - Beatrice
I didn’t want Arko to touch me, but I was frozen in place from shock, and Arko grabbed me by my wrist to drag me away from my brothers. The lights around me were suddenly disorienting, the faces merged into simple shapes, and my body no longer felt like mine.
“Come on.” Arko pushed past a group of curious onlookers to make way for the exit. “Move faster.”
But I was moving on autopilot, my mind still too busy processing what my brothers had said to do anything useful like fight him or break free. I walked beside him like I’d lost all will, following his lead, despite the fact that he’d set the fire in the nightclub that night.
The panic from the memories resurfacing from that night scraped in my chest, fighting for a life of its own, and I tried to keep it contained before I lost my damn mind.
Arko led me out of the door, down the winding driveway, to where his convoy was parked. The whole time, his hand on my wrist felt like it was burning into me. My vision tunneled, and the night faded around me as I took in Arko’s furious, determined face.
He had set the fire that night, and during all this time, after everything, he’d never told me. Nothing could justify that betrayal. He had a million opportunities to set the record straight, like when I told him what I had survived as a teenager. Instead of telling me the truth, instead of fucking apologizing, he kissed me.
What the actual fuck?
The same man who’d held me during my panic attack, who knew about my trauma, had deliberately triggered it and kept it a god damn secret.
I felt like I was drowning just breathing the same air as him.
“Keep moving,” Arko said, guiding me down the path faster as he threw a look over his shoulder.
I let him pull me along, while my mind spun in chaotic circles. I tried to take a few deep breaths, the crisp air filling my lungs, but I was still spiraling. I counted my fingers, my god damn toes, and felt the cool wind on my neck, but nothing… nothing quenched the rage sprouting deep in my heart.
