I followed Ryker’s troubled gaze to his twin, who was circling the school dance floor. My breath caught in my throat at the sight of her. Even at fifteen, she outshone everyone else in the room.
Not that I’d let Ry know that. He was too overprotective of her. I’d done my best to stay away from her, but I hoped that one day my best friend might realise that I could be good for his sister. That maybe we could be together in the future. She was the only girl I was interested in. No one else even came close. And sometimes, when she smiled at me, I wondered if she felt something for me too.
“Why?” I was sure I already knew the answer, but the word came out anyway.
“My parents have plans for her.” He spoke through clenched teeth. “They want her to stay untouched.”
“Untouched?” I echoed. Unease trickled down my spine. This wasn’t what I’d expected at all.
“Yeah. Fucking— Supposedly, they have plans for the future. You know how my dad’s been trying to make inroads with the Bratva for years?”
“What does that have to do with Nova?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t like it. Nova shouldn’t be a pawn in their schemes. I don’t want her to get hurt. She needs to be careful. I’ve tried telling her, but I dunno if she understands howserious the situation is. No one can touch her. No one. It’s not worth her safety.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
There was a sudden lump in my throat. I blinked rapidly as I stared at the beautiful girl across the room.
The girl who would never be mine. I needed to push her away, both for her own safety and for my own.
Fucking hell. That had been the first time I’d realised there was no hope for us, the first time I knew I had to push Nova away, and it was being hammered home now as I held her in my arms right in front of her fiancé and his family.
“You okay?” I murmured, feeling her stiffen further as we began to move.
“What do you think?” she shot back. “Why do you even care?”
I was so fucking tired of lying to myself. “Because you should be able to choose.”Because I want you to choose me.
Her whole body shuddered. “Jay. Don’t.”
“You look beautiful.” I shouldn’t have said the words, but they came spilling out before I had a chance to bite them back.
“Stop.” Her eyes met mine, wide and brimming with tears. “Please.”
“I’m sorry.”
She inhaled harshly. “I-I need to go.” Tearing herself away from me, she practically ran from the dance floor.
Icy eyes met mine, the threat in them clear, and then Anton Volkov was gone, striding after his fiancée.
“Jay. Can I have a word?”
I met Dan’s uncharacteristically hard gaze, and my brows flew up. What the fuck was wrong with him?
“Yeah. Course.”
“Not here. Outside.”
We made our way towards the tall double doors that had been thrown open, allowing the night chill to cool the overheated ballroom. Dan stepped onto the terrace, weaving around the people who had gathered there, drinking and talking and smoking. He headed to the right, away from the festivities.
I slowed my pace when he came to a stop in front of the security guard who was patrolling the boundary with a huge black dog, speaking to him in a low voice. The security guy said something in Russian into his radio, and an instant later, it crackled with a response. “You may use pit,” he said in heavily accented English. “Go right. It is farthest building.”
“Spasiba.” Dan gave him a nod and then crouched down, patting the dog’s giant head. “Khoroshiy malchik.” The dog’s ears pricked up, and it pushed its nose into Dan’s thigh.
“He likes you,” the security guard commented. “That is unusual.”
Dan straightened back up. “Nah. Everyone likes me.” His gaze slid to mine, his brief smile disappearing. “Almost everyone. Thanks, mate. Appreciate it.”
