Page 16 of Prey of the Bratva

The words landed differently than I expected. They were not soft or emotional but had a controlled feel to them. But what caught me off guard was how genuine they seemed. It was not the gratitude itself but the way she presented it to me.

“For what?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

“For saving my life in there.”

“I didn’t do it for you,” I said.

“I didn’t say you did.”

“Then don’t thank me.”

“I will,” she replied evenly. “Because regardless of your reasons, you still saved my life.”

Her eyes held mine.

“I don’t like owing people,” she added. “Especially not you. Not a Romanov.”

“And yet,” I said.

“And yet,” she echoed.

Her lips curved faintly, but there was no softness in it.

“I still despise you,” she continued. “That hasn’t changed. That will never change.”

“I wouldn’t expect it to.”

“But I acknowledge the debt that you have put me under by saving my life. And a Chernykh never forgets their debts.”

Silence stretched between us, heavier this time, and I looked away first, my gaze shifting to the road ahead.

“Why were you there?” I asked.

She didn’t answer immediately.

“Why were you following me?” she asked in reply, forcing me to look at her. I stayed silent, and her lips curved into a smile. “Don’t ask questions when you aren’t ready to give answers yourself.”

“I noticed how you switched cars three times to get there,” I continued. “You don’t use a burner phone for nothing, and you don’t walk into a warehouse like that unprepared unless you expect something.”

Her gaze sharpened slightly.

“How long have you been watching me?”

“Long enough.”

She considered that. “And you didn’t think to intervene or catch me sooner? If you were following me, you must have had a motive.”

“I do.”

“So why save me now?”

I met her eyes again. “Because the gun was at your head.”

That answer seemed to satisfy her more than anything else could have.

“I was meeting someone,” she said.

“That much I know, Misha,” I said, her name rolling off my tongue like it belonged there.