Page 139 of Cruel Romeo

“How did he even get this far past your men?” Kira asks, baffled. “It’s like he knew exactly where to go. And why now, after all these weeks? Why suddenly tonight?”

I stay silent, but the seed of doubt takes root, refuses to be shaken off.

The same seed must be growing in Kira’s head, because she looks up at me abruptly. “The only difference is that you brought Sima here,” she says, eyes narrowed. “You never did before.”

“Be careful with your words, Kira.” I crack my knuckles. “Don’t talk about my wife like she’s some kind of traitor.”

She rises shakily from the chair but doesn’t back down, chin high. “I’m only saying what anyone would see. You bring her here, and suddenly this happens. You can’t ignore that.”

“Kira—”

“That’s my husband in that bed!” Her eyes fill with tears as she points at the husk that’s left of Dimitri. “Myhusband! And you’re telling me to lay off your child bride when she might be the culprit behind it?!”

I step toward her, fists clenched at my sides. “I don’t like your tone.”

“And I don’t like how blind you’re being,” she spits back, fear and defiance mixed in her eyes. “That’s your brother, too. You’re really going to ignore the signs of your wife’s guilt? Is that how little he matters to you?”

“You don’t fucking know how much he matters to me.”

“Then show me,” she demands. “Where’s Sima right now?”

In class,I want to answer, but I realize that I don’t know that. Not for certain. I’ve only got Luka’s word to take for it, and I already have enough reason to suspect that someone in my ranks cannot be trusted. As far as I’m concerned, that might be him.

The more I try to shove Kira’s insinuation away, the more my doubt spreads.

Fuck me—what if she’s right?

What if someone inside my circleisfeeding information? And what if that someone is the very woman I’ve let into my life? Into my bed?

I feel it again, the same creeping sensation I felt that night at Boris’s restaurant: the chill of not knowing who I can trust.

Since the day I married Sima, too many things have gone wrong. The missing shipment. The shooting. And now, this attack on my brother. All of it after she entered my life.

Could Kira be onto something? Has Sima been feeding information to her family all along?

She never tried to run again after that first night. I thought that meant she understood, that she was willing to play along, but maybe that wasn’t it.

Maybe it wasn’t because of our deal. Maybe she chose to stay so she could get close enough to bleed me from the inside out.

And when she said she didn’t want what we had to end?—

What if that was part of a plan, too?

I need to be sure. Is the woman in my bed my salvation or the one holding the knife to my throat?

There’s only one way to find out.

58

SIMA

I’m pacing a hole into the carpet, arms folded tight across my chest, when I hear the front door open downstairs.

Petyr.

My heart seizes. This is it. The moment I fix us or lose us.

The low rumble of his voice carries from the elevator. A short exchange. Someone from the building staff, most likely. At worst, he’s talking to Kira, though I haven’t seen the shadow of her horns or heard the flick of her pointy tail anywhere near the penthouse so far.