Page 116 of Beautiful Secrets

But Dimitri’s suddenly gray face is the final piece of this screwed-up puzzle.

“Aye,” I say carefully. “Mika’s stubborn as a goat.”

“Da,” Yuri murmurs, coming even closer.

I’ve been around a lot of powerful men. Dangerous ones too. But Yuri? I have no idea what he is. At first glance, he looks like a bruiser. Someone who could make serious money in a boxing ring. And the brains to go with the hundreds of concussions he would have received en route to MMA glory. Until you look into his eyes.

That’s when you realize he’s intelligent too. Clever, crafty. Perhaps even ingenious.

“What did you do?” I say quietly.

Yuri smiles like a fucking wolf baring its teeth. “Me?” he says. “I make a fucking point, Hendry. Shurik, Mika’s grandfather, he didn’t understand this new world. Or his place in it. Stubborn…like goat.”

Christ, why is my heart beating so hard? And why is Lev still on the phone?

What the hell is going on?

“Well, maybe Mika can explain it to him when she gets there.” I tug at my cigarette, now desperate for the nicotine to soothe me. “Like I said, she can be pretty persuasive.”

It’s obvious the Barisovas and Vasilievs had a massive falling out of some kind, but then why would they be marrying the two families together?

Yuri shakes his head though. “I know Mika. And yes,” he gives a grudging nod, “she is a good talker. But even she cannot persuade a dead man.”

I don’t even need the spark of delight in Yuri’s eyes when he says that to know what happened. It’s all falling into place now—and God, I don’t like the look of it.

“You killed her grandfather,” I say.

“Da.” Yuri lifts a hand, and starts counting on his fingers. “And her granny, and her cousins, and her uncles, and her aunts.”

He waves a hand to Dimitri, who looks like he’s about to pass out. “This…this is all that is left of the Vasiliev name. And they all belong to us.” Yuri looks back at me, crow’s feet appearing at the corner of his eyes. “To me.”

Another step puts him within arm’s reach of me.

“Mika? She disrespected me—twice now. As have you.” His eyes are the color of a dirty winter sky, and they study me for a second before dismissing me. “You will watch while I fuck her—again—and then slit her throat…even if I have to peel off your eyelids first.”

I lunge at Yuri’s smug fucking face.

But Lev is suddenly there to hold me back. And then another two heavies rush over to help him, because I almost get to Yuri anyway.

Again?

Again?

42

Cole

Ihate it when I lose track of time. Happened often back at Blackmoore, usually when I’d been misbehaving and I was separated from the herd.

For their safety, of course.

Times like that, all I had to look at were white walls. No padding—the leather cuffs on my bed held me down tightly enough.

At first, I couldn’t cope with being alone with my thoughts. There were so many of them. They were so dark. So…disturbing. I wasn’t sure if I’ve just never paid attention, or if I was too good at drowning them out before I was institutionalized.

With therapy and medication, those thoughts became bearable.

But not anymore.