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I go and find him. “Sergio’s here.”

“Want me out there?”

“No.”

He grimaces.

“Not because of the chair. I don’t want him to knowyou’re back or what’s going on. I don’t even want Pavel in the room.”

I head for my study, making sure that Erin and my sister and Sasha are tucked away, too.

One of my men leads him in. “Vodka?”

“How dare you upset my Stefina.”

“Please. You don’t care enough about her happiness or you’d find her someone she loves and someone who adores her, wouldn’t you?”

I hit a nerve because he flinches. It’s subtle, but I clock it. “Stefina knows the game, this world. The wedding is?—”

“Not happening. She insulted my woman, my children. That’s not okay, Sergio. I won’t even enter into a marriage of convenience with someone so disrespectful. There are others, find one. Vodka?”

“No.” He looks me up and down as I lean back in my chair. “You really want to make an enemy of me?” Sergio asks.

I shrug, getting up and showing him to the door. “You know what, Sergio? I’m willing to risk it.”

Chapter Twenty-One

ERIN

Sasha’s with Alina,and Olga, but I refused to go. In the living room with his study door open, I can hear what’s been said—mostly—in Demyan’s study.

And even if I couldn’t hear most of the words, it’s clear Sergio’s furious and making threats. But the thing is the man’s loud and I hear them.

Hear him tell Demyan he’ll finish him and wipe the floor with him. Destroy his empire and rape his business. He’ll kill all of his people.

All that and more after Demyan told him he’d risk it.

I pace, biting my fingernails, my stomach churning hard.

Demyan walks in and my knees almost give way. He looks both like he’s added a different weight to him but also flung off the previous baggage.

“It’s done.”

“Demyan, I?—”

“The wedding, the arrangement with Stefina’s done and dusted.”

I open my mouth to speak again, but I hesitate.

This is what I wanted all along, but the threats andSergio’s tone. Hell, I never really considered how angry he’d be, what this all meant.

I was just consumed by my own emotions and I didn’t think of the wider picture, and now…

Sergio basically just threatened not to only financially destroy Demyan but end him. And I don’t think that was metaphorical. I think he meant it in the biblical sense.

I swallow hard.

Have I just put Demyan in more danger? Sasha?