I lowered my gun an inch, my head beginning to spin.
“Ilana, come with us,” the taller of the two men said.
“No,” Ilana replied wildly, “I told you not to come looking for me, and yet you did. But that does not mean I am going anywhere with you, Kliment.”
I took her wrist in my hand and dragged her back towards me. “We are leaving, and Ilana is going with me. Don’t even so much as try to follow us or come after her.”
Kliment took a step forward, but I fired into the ground right in front of his feet. Ilana shouted, and Kliment backed away a few steps.
“The next one will not be a warning,” I said.
He stopped then. I took Ilana’s hand and shoved her in the waiting car right by the street, peeling out before anyone could say another word. My world had come crashing down before me in the matter of a few seconds. I still was not sure what was true and what was a lie because none of this felt real. None of it felt like it was happening to me. My wife was a Romanov. I turned to look at her, but she stayed quiet throughout the drive. I didn’t speak either. By the time we reached the house, the shock had burned off completely, and all that remained now was rage.
I stopped the car and stepped out, opening her door. I yanked her out of the seat when she proceeded to stay rooted to the spot and dragged her inside the house. She followed quietly behind me as I took her to the bedroom, slamming the door shut behind us. She had only seen two sides of me yet; theunconcerned Avgust and the Avgust who was ready to give her the world. She was going to see a very different side of me now.
Because I had never felt angrier.
“You knew, didn’t you? You knew it all along, and you chose to keep it from me?”
She flinched at my accusation, her beautiful face streaked with tears, but stayed silent.
“Say something, goddamnit! How long have you known? Did you know, even before the whole thing started, that I told you about the Romanovs myself? Did you know since the day I brought you into this house? Was the auction nothing but a setup to gain entry into my world?”
Her chin lifted, and she looked at me. “No. I only found out after the research. After I saw the file Timofey had sent you, with mention of the Romanov name and descriptions of my brothers. I knew nothing before that, not even the fact that my brothers were somehow associated with the Bratva.”
I laughed, but it came out ugly. “So while you were sleeping in my bed—”
“I wasn’t spying—”
“—while you were painting in my house—”
“I never told them anything! You will have to believe me, Avgust.”
“You knew your family was looking for mine and trying to gain territory on what was our land.”
She swallowed. “I was trying to protect both of you from hurting the other. I cared about both of you and did not want to see either of you suffering or dying. I did not want to become apart of this war that might have only grown bigger until one of the two people I loved would die.”
I stepped back like she had struck me.
“Don’t you dare tell me you love me! Not right now. Not after everything you have already done. I will not sit here and listen to lies to my fucking face.”
“I am not lying, Avgust,” she sobbed. “I was never a part of this, and I did not know my brothers were a part of the Bratva until I saw that email. You have to believe me. Please.”
“You let me walk blindly into that,” I said, feeling furious in a way I hadn’t in years. “You let me bring you into my family. Into my home. You let me introduce you to everyone important to me as my wife. You let me give you everything I could to make you feel better. You let me care for you and love you, and you did this to me.”
“You love me?” she asked, walking towards me, but I backed away.
“No, Ilana. Not anymore. Anything I might have felt for you is long gone now because I cannot even stomach the thought of being with someone who has betrayed me.”
Tears spilled down her cheeks. “I didn’t know what to do, Avgust. I didn’t know how to tell you the truth about my family, knowing fully well you might have wanted to kill them if you found out the truth.”
“I know exactly what you did, Ilana. Stop pretending you are the innocent one in all of this.”
I turned away, chest heaving, hands shaking with the effort not to destroy something. I did not want to touch her. Not right now. I had always been told that I had excellentcontrol over my anger, but all of that control had evaporated somewhere, and all that was left was pure, blind rage.
“Avgust, please believe me. Please.”
“I saved you,” I said quietly. “Because I thought you were innocent.”
