Page 2 of Beautiful Secrets

“Vanya!”

“Okay, okay!” comes a breathy voice from inside. Then, “Hurry!” which, obviously, isn’t directed at me.

This was a bad idea.

Sucha bad idea.

She said she wanted half an hour alone with Aleksandr. It has been forty minutes already. Forty minutes I have been standing guard outside this door—which they don’t seem to realize is thin enough that I can hear everything going on in there—while Vanya and Aleksandr…

She told me they were just going to make out.

I was an idiot to believe her.

“Vanya! Get out or I am coming in!” I risk turning my head to put extra emphasis on the threat, and that’s when I catch movement from the corner of my eye.

An invisible hand grips my heart and squeezes.

It shouldn’t be easy to sneak up on someone since there’s about a yard between each of those pale tree trunks, but I guess that kind of stuff comes naturally to a trained hunter like Yuri Barisova.

The newestbrigadierof the Barisova family.

I’ve heard plenty of things about him, all bad. How he hunts for pleasure, not for sport. That he always wounds a deer first, and then strangles the life from her with his bare hands.

For someone who is only two years older than me, Yuri doesn’t look it. He has wild, sandy-colored hair and even wilder eyes, and a body that belies the fact that he is such a good hunter with those too-broad shoulders and thick arms.

The hunter is headed straight for me.

Or rather, straight for the shed.

I guess he was wondering where his fiancée was this fine day of their engagement party.

“Yuri!” I call out, my shrill, panicked voice almost breaking. “What are you doing here?” I lean back against the door, casually lifting up my foot as if I want to press it up against the wood. But instead I kick it as hard as I can.

There’s a gasp from inside the shed.

My chest grows tighter with each unhurried step Yuri takes. Soon he’s close enough that I can see the grim set of his jaw.

Chyort!

Despite every atom of my body willing me to stop, I push away from the door and walk closer to him, hoping to intercept him before he can get within earshot of the shed—and Vanya.

I can’t even imagine his reaction if he was to find her in there with his brother. Yuri has eight years on Aleksandr and he’s spent the last six as avorfor the Bratva. He not only looks capable of killing a deer with his bare hands, he has the experience to back it up.

“Is it time for dessert already?” I ask him.

Yuri and Vanya’s wedding is a big deal. It’s supposed to put an end to the string of senseless assassinations between our two families. Maybe letting Vanya make out with her boyfriend today wasn’t the best plan of action, but I will be damned if I’ll stand in the way of true love.

“Wow,” I say, when Yuri doesn’t look like he plans on stopping to chat. “Time just flies when—”

Yuri knocks me out of the way with his shoulder. “Where is she?”

I barely catch myself, spin on my heel, and rush after him. I snag the sleeve of his dark army-style jacket. “Who are you looking for?”

He glances back at me just long enough to yank his sleeve out of my grip, and then goes straight up to the shed. As he puts his hand on the latch, the door flies open and crashes into his chest.

It should have staggered him, but he just leans back to let it open all the way without a flinch of pain on his face.

Aleksandr bolts out, his curly blond hair bouncing as he races past me.