My eyes widen. “He blew it up? What does that mean?”
Gavriil is always cool, level-headed. Even when things seem to be going south, he knows how to control a room full of people and smooth things out.
“He said that he had been watching us on the camera and was jealous,” Alina tells me.
“He admitted that to you?”
Gavriil doesn’t talk about his feelings, and he certainly never admits his mistakes. Part of me wonders if she imagined it because that doesn’t sound like my brother.
“He was drunk,” Alina replies. “He wasn’t acting like himself.”
Gavriil never drinks to excess. Ever. I’ve never seen him even tipsy.
A faint ache hits me deep in the chest, but I don’t want to identify it.
“Fuck, he really is losing control,” I mutter before pulling her down onto the bed with me.
“I know,” she agrees as she cuddles up against my side and rests her cheek on my chest. “I’m worried about him, Dom.”
She worries about him.
I rub her back as we lay there together, my arm wrapping around her smaller body to keep her close.
“He had to leave me for an update that couldn’t wait and sent me in here.”
“Good,” I reply as I peer up at the ceiling, wondering what’s happened now.
Gavriil just sent a beautiful woman out of his bed to me, so I imagine he feels pretty shitty, whatever it is.
He deserves it.
“He thought you wouldn’t want to work with him,” Alina says as her fingertips roam over my chest. “That you would rather stab him in the back.”
“I betrayed him once. He’s not wrong to think I would do it again.”
Sitting up to look down at me, she says, “That’s what I told him too.”
“What?” I ask.
“I couldn’t keep lying to him, Dom. He mentioned releasing you and I…didn’t want him to be caught off guard. He already knew you would try to overthrow him.”
“Of course he did,” I tell her. “He’s not stupid.”
“You can’t kill him, Dom. You’re brothers. He saved your life, and he’s the only family you have left,” Alina says. “I know how much it hurts to lose your entire family.”
“I’m sorry. I know you do. But this is different from Archer. He made his mistakes and so has Gavriil. I’ve bled for him, risked my life so many times, killed for him. I can’t do it anymore,dikaya koshka.”
Despite her claim and refusal to apologize, I know Alina feels a little guilty for sharing his bed, for having feelings for him, and letting it come between us, but she can’t expect me to forgive Gavriil for all he’s done. What he’s done to her, knowing it was killing me.
“I’m not upset with you, wildcat,” I tell her in the silence that follows.
What’s done is done, and I’m just glad that she’s in my arms right now and that her decisions were her own.
“Really? Because you look upset.” Her voice comes out tight.
I shake my head before kissing the top of hers. “I want you to be happy and safe. That’s all that I care about.”
“I’m happy and safe with you,” she replies as she nuzzles her cheek against my chest.
