Page 30 of Prey of the Bratva

His gaze sharpened.

“You’re not different, Misha,” he continued. “You just tell yourself you are.”

“I am.”

“You operate in shadows, and you keep secrets. You make unilateral decisions and justify them as necessary.”

“And you don’t?” I asked.

“I at least don’t pretend it’s something else. I don’t act like a saint who has never wronged anyone. I accept myself for who I am.

“Unlike you, at least I am trying to fix something.”

“And what exactly do you think you might be fixing?” he asked.

“Something you’ve clearly chosen to ignore.”

“I don’t ignore problems.”

“No,” I said. “You eliminate them. You kill people with a single shot, and you move past their bodies like they never even mattered.”

“And you don’t do that? Isn’t that exactly what we all do in our world?”

“Not like you.”

He let out a quiet breath, something almost like a laugh but without humor. “You’re risking everything for something you haven’t even fully mapped out.”

“I know exactly what I am doing. Don’t make assumptions based on no information whatsoever.

“You knew enough to walk into a trap,” he scoffed.

“You keep saying that like it changes the outcome.”

I tilted my head slightly, my gaze sharpening.

“What about you?” I asked.

“What about me?”

“How many people have you pushed out of your life in the name of control?”

His expression went still, but I didn’t stop speaking. I knew exactly what part of him I was hurting, but I didn’t care. He was doing the exact same thing to me after all. If he wanted to play, I needed him to know that two could play at this game.

“Ilana,” I said. “You drove her away from you and refused to see her point. You refused to accept Avgust even when your sister asked you to.”

There was a flicker. It was barely there, but I saw it.

“And Fyodor?” I added. “You didn’t just lose him. You pushed him out, too. You let him rebel against you and leave the family, but you refused to relent. Your pride was too big for that. Is that not the case, Kliment?”

His jaw tightened. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I know enough,” I said. “I’ve seen this before. I have seen leaders who think control equals loyalty when it doesn’t.”

“It does.”

“No,” I said quietly. “It doesn’t.”

Silence cracked open between us.