“Spasebo,” I tell him, and I mean it…right up until Aleksei cuts in, ruining the moment like always.
“You still haven’t asked the homeless girl to marry you? That would help your nanny situation.”
His grin only stretches when I hit him with a glower.
“Her name is Sloane,” I correct flatly. “And no, I don’t plan on marrying her.”
“That’s good,” Anton adds almost idly, like it’s an offhand observation. “Marriage would only weaken you. And you already have Lev doing that.”
I’m on him before the last word even leaves his mouth. One second, he’s standing there, and the next, he’s slammed against the wall, my forearm locked across his throat, holding him there. He doesn’t fight back. He simply watches me, calm as ever, like he genuinely can’t understand what he said wrong.
My blood roars in my ears.
“My son is not a weakness.” Every word is edged with fury. “Ti ponil?”You understand?
Hands grab at my arm, my brothers trying to pull me off him, but it’s useless when I’m like this. When all I can see is Lev’s face. When my father appears, repeating the same words.
The past crashes into the present until I don’t know whose throat my arm is actually against.
Anton’s eyes don’t change. If anything, he looks…curious. Like I’m a puzzle he wants to pull apart and study.
Somewhere under all the anger, I know he didn’t mean it the way it sounded. He doesn’t know what it is to have a child or to love someone so much it terrifies you. But hearing him say that about my son? I couldn't let it go.
My grip loosens a fraction and I step back, forcing air through my nose. Anton calmly straightens his jacket, smoothing the fabric like I was nothing more than an inconvenience.
“You just proved my point,” he says, almost bored.
I move toward him again, right on the edge of ending this, brother or not.
Konstantin steps between us, one hand on my chest as his gaze cuts to Anton. “Enough. I think it is time you shut your mouth.”
Anton’s lips twitch like he’s nowhere near done, but he stays silent while I back off and head for the door.
If I stay another second, I’m bound to do something I can’t take back.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
SLOANE
After work,I head to the mini-mart I always go to, needing tampons and Tylenol, but my nerves are on high alert the entire drive. Every street I turn onto feels like Eli’s behind me, close enough that if I glance in the mirror, I’ll finally see him.
I can’t shake the feeling that he’s still close. He has to be. He wouldn’t show up at the diner just to disappear. He wants something from me. Either to kill me or drag me back into the game. Neither of which I’m willing to let him do.
Pulling into a busy parking lot, I take a spot right in the middle just in case he’s nearby. More cars means more witnesses. Grabbing my bag, I shut the door, pull up my hoodie, and walk in like I’m not scared at all.
I head to the aisle I need and grab a box of tampons without really looking, then cut to the next one to find the meds when that same cold prickle climbs the back of my neck. The exact one from the diner.
No, no, no. Please let me be wrong. Please let it be in my head and not him standing right behind me.
My fingers clamp around the box until the cardboard bends. My pulse hammers in my throat, my skin going tight and hot while the rest of me feels ice cold. I can’t make myself turnaround. I’m scared that if I see him, it makes all of this real, and if I don’t, maybe I can still pretend I’m safe.
Milo flashes through my mind in a rush. What happens to my baby if I disappear?
I see my sister’s face, the way she barely looks at him now, and I know she’d dump him into the system just to be rid of the responsibility. She doesn’t love him. She never has. She never will.
“Hi, Eden. I thought this was a better place for us to talk.”
A brutal shudder rips through me.
