Page 63 of Prey of the Bratva

I held his gaze. “Yes. That is the truth.”

The room stilled completely, and not even Timofey moved this time. For a moment, no one spoke.

“That is,” Timofey said slowly, sitting up properly now, “deeply inconvenient for everyone in this household, I believe, considering our collective hatred for the man.”

“Deeply?” Avgust echoed. “That is your assessment of this situation?”

“I’m choosing optimism.”

“There is no version of this where something like this could be optimistic.”

“There’s always a version—”

“Timofey.”

“Fine,” he muttered. “This is catastrophic. Happy?”

“Thrilled.”

Zhenya pushed herself off the wall, running a hand through her hair. “I need a drink. It is way too late at night for this conversation, and nothing is making sense anymore.”

“That makes two of us,” Elisse added quietly from where she stood near the doorway.

I hadn’t even noticed her there. I raked my gaze over the corridor and saw Ilana and Clara standing beside Elisse as well. All of them looked worried, their expressions rather troubled because of the situation. Ilana’s gaze was fixed on me, with something unreadable sitting behind it. It was not shock or anger but something a little more complicated than either of the two. I could not blame her. Kliment had been completely against her marriage to Avgust and had wanted her to come home. Thetwo of them shared a rather turbulent relationship since then and hadn’t been on speaking terms for a while now.

“Elisse,” Fyodor said softly from beside her, his hand brushing lightly against hers.

She didn’t look at him because she, too, was watching me. If there was someone who should be able to understand my position, it had to be Elisse. She, too, loved a Romanov and had gone against her family to be with him.

“I didn’t plan this,” I said finally, breaking the silence before it could stretch any longer and make things doubly awkward. “It wasn’t strategy. It wasn’t manipulation. I didn’t plan for him to come rescue me on the day in the docks, and I hadn’t planned to spend all this time in his safehouse and end up falling in love with him. These are just things that happened, and I had no control over them.”

“What do you mean, rescue you?” Iosif asked, and I realized I still hadn’t told them about my failed mission.

“The day I left the house and disappeared, I actually went to the south docks to meet a mid-level agent, but I went alone, and things didn’t go as I had predicted. There were a lot of men, and there was a gun at my head, and I could have died if Kliment hadn’t been there to save me.”

“What was he even doing there?” Fyodor asked, stepping into the main hall.

“He was following me because he wanted to kill me to take revenge on our family,” I said, as everyone stared at me as if I had lost my mind.

“Oh boy,” Zhenya said, chuckling softly as she looked at me. “Are you serious right now?”

I shrugged, not knowing what else to say.

“So you knew this, and you still decided to go to his safehouse with him? Why?” Timofey asked, genuinely appearing at a loss for words.

“I had a fracture and multiple injuries. I also had a bullet graze wound. It was pretty bad, and I really needed some place safe to recover, and Kliment was right there.”

“You amaze me, Misha,” Avgust sighed. “And then you eventually fell in love with him, and he gave up the idea of killing you?”

“He gave up the idea of killing me the moment he rescued me because why else would he even save my life?” I replied, hoping everyone saw the sense in my logic. “We eventually got closer and fell in love.”

Avgust let out a short, disbelieving laugh, dragging a hand over his face. “So you chose him to tell about your secrets over all of us.”

“Yes, but that is because he trusted me enough to handle the situation by myself.”

“Do you understand who he is, Misha?” Iosif asked.

“Yes.”