Page 152 of Cruel Romeo

“Yes.” I channel all my patience into my voice. If it had been anyone else, they would be bleeding right now. “That’s why I wanted him alive.”

“What if you couldn’t hold him?” she says. “The doctors spoke to me yesterday, Petyr. They said Dimitri is getting stronger, responding better to treatment. I couldn’t risk him being killed. Not when he’s finally fighting.”

“You really think I wanted to risk my brother’s life?” I’m almost yelling. “I had a plan, Kira. We had him. He wasn’t going anywhere.”

“You can’t promise that.”

“I could have, if you’d just fucking trusted me!”

She killed him. The assassin, my only lead. He was the last man who could give me answers, and now, he’s fucking dead.

Kira’s throat bobs, but she doesn’t look away. “He almost got him, Petyr. Why should I have trusted you to protect my husband when you’d already failed once? You let a hired gun come within inches of killing him!”

“Isavedhim. I was there for him.”

“No, you weren’t. It was dumb luck. When you’re not working, you’re off prancing around with Sima, playing house like?—”

“Easy,” Ivan warns, but Kira doesn’t relent.

“She’s the reason Dimitri almost died!” Her cracked wail whips off the walls. “We all know it! She visited him once, and thenthathappened!”

“You’re not thinking clearly right now.” Ivan rubs her shoulders. “You’re in shock, Kira.”

“I know what I’m saying.” Her tone turns defensive. “And he knows it, too,” she adds, gaze fixed on me.

Fuck this. I want to shake her by the shoulders until she wakes the fuck up. She needs to understand the damage she’s done. She shouldn’t have been here. And she sure as shit shouldn’t have picked up that gun. There was no reason for her to involve herself.

But I can’t ignore how hard her shoulders are shaking.

Or the fact that she’s telling the truth.

I have been distracted. I’ve been played by Sima in ways I never thought I could be.

All this time, she’s been pulling the strings, and I had no clue. ThoughtIwas the puppeteer when I was just dancing to her tune.

At least Kira saw that. I didn’t.

Is it really such a fucking shocker if she didn’t trust me after that?

Frustration floods me. Mixes with the rage I’ve been pushing down since I left the penthouse. My knuckles are white, my breathing hard.

It’s Ivan who catches it first. How close I am to completely flipping my shit.

“Petyr…” he murmurs as he stands. “She messed up. None of us doubts that. But this isn’t the time to pin the blame. What’s done is done.”

I drag a hand over my face. Fuck me, he’s right. There’s no use arguing over this. The man is dead, and my answers died with him.

What if Sima was innocent?Part of me wonders despite myself.What if now we’ll never know?

But I push it down. Sima is guilty. I got tricked. There’s no other way this makes sense.

I turn back to Kira. Her stare pins me into place, hard and scared at the same time. “I had to do it,” she whispers again. “For him.”

For once, I have nothing to say back to her.

What a fucking mess.

I turn away and go back where Mikhael is waiting for my next order. Everyone is holding their breath.