Page 48 of Ruined By Sin

Timur's jaw sets tight as he clenches his teeth together. I watch his nostrils flare and his shoulders square while his eyes bore into me. But there is more than anger in that gaze. He feels desperately hurt by my lie, more than a simple business thing he has to deal with. I let him get close to me. I let him fall for me. And I was lying. This is what I was afraid of.

"Mirov." He says it slowly, like it's a piece of glass shredding his tongue.

"Yes... but please..."

"Victor Mirov's niece."

"Yes."

He turns away from me and walks to the window, staring out into the dark night. I could run right now, out the front door into that darkness where I could hide and try to find help, but I don't want to. I need Timur to call off his dogs and stop killing my family. I need him to see that everything I said about what I feel for him is real. That I let him see the real me and that I love him.

"He planted a fucking bomb, Kira! A bomb!"

His shout makes me jump and I think of what Victor said. It was Baron... Morin strapped a bomb to my cousin's chest. Does that mean Timur watched my cousin die?

"It wasn't my uncle, Tim. It was?—"

"Don't you dare defend him to me." He whips around on me with such an angry glare on his face, I believe he could hurt me any second. "I pulled a man out of my club tonight with explosives strapped to his chest. I watched him fucking blow up right in front of me." His chest is heaving as he leans over the bed and comes close enough to spit in my face.

"I'm telling the truth." My voice is so tiny after his explosion, but I still try. I promised Victor I would.

"The truth? You want to talk about the truth now?"

"Tim, please," I plead, sobbing. "Please just listen to me." I crawl toward him, but he flinches away like I'm toxic and if I touch him, he'll die.

"I protected you." His fists rise in front of him, shaking like he wants to strike me but he's controlling himself. "I went to war with my own people to keep you safe. I lied to my brother. I putmy reputation, my family, everything I have on the line because I believed you. Because I trusted you."

"Tim.."

"You don't know what it cost me to stand in front of my brother—" He snarls and throws his phone at the wall. I watch it smash and fall to the ground with a dark screen and wonder if it's broken now.

"I'm sorry," I whimper. "I was scared."

"Sorry." He laughs, and it's the ugliest sound I've ever heard come out of him. "You're sorry?"

"I didn't have a choice. From the moment I woke up on your couch, I was fighting to survive. Everything I did, every lie I told, was because I was terrified. Not because I wanted to hurt you." This time, when I crawl toward him, he doesn't rush away. But he's not the same compassionate, caring man who just comforted me.

"But you did hurt me. You understand that, right? Whatever your reasons were, whatever fear was driving you, the result is the same. I opened my life to you. I let you in. And none of it was real."

"It was real. What happened between us was real." I slide off the bed, touching his chest. He snarls and bares his teeth but doesn't pull away. His heart is hammering and so is mine. He's letting me touch him, though. That’s a good sign.

"How would I know? How would I possibly know which parts of you were real and which parts were another performance? You played the role so well, I didn't question it once. Not once, Kira." He grabs my wrist and plucks my hand off his chest. "I fuckingfell in love with you. I was going to ask your uncle if we could be together."

His confession makes more tears come. I don't know what to say to him. I knew he'd be hurt, but it was my life on the line. My family...

"The whole fucking time, you were gaslighting me."

"No," I whimper, reaching for him again, but he pulls away. He picks up his shirt and slides it on like he's preparing to leave, but I haven't said my piece. He has to know what Victor told me.

"Timur, listen to me. There's something you need to know about Morin."

"Don't."

"He fucking did this..." I pull the robe back, showing him the bruises that ring my entire neck. "He was going to rape me, and I kneed him in the fucking balls and ran out."

Timur's eyes darken, but he pauses and his hands still their work on the buttons of his shirt. Then his jaw rises a notch as he looks down his nose. He's trying to decide whether he believes me. He shouldn't even doubt my word, but I've given him no reason to trust me.

"Dryden told me you slipped in the shower."