Page 157 of Cruel Romeo

The word settles heavily between us. Somehow, Lev’s confession does nothing to soothe the hammering in my ears. Instead, it feeds it, until it’s all I can do not to break him where he sits.

“Most of it was small things,” he adds. “Ways to get his people set up here. Where the cops turn a blind eye, which businesses to lean on, names that wouldn’t be missed if they disappeared. But then he asked for a location.”

“A location?”

He drags a hand down his face. “Anatoli… He asked where your father was going to be. On a certain day.”

The implication sinks slowly, then fast. “You told him where my father would be the day he died.”

Lev flinches hard. “I didn’t know what he was planning. I swear it, Petyr. I thought?—”

“You thought what?” I snap. “That Anatoli wanted to send him flowers? Write him a polite fucking letter?!” My hands slam on the dash. “Why the fuck would Anatoli Danilo want to know where my father was, if not to goddamn kill him?!”

Lev’s eyes squeeze shut. I can read the pain on his face, but right now, I don’t fucking care. “I didn’t think?—”

“No, you didn’t. You only thought of yourself.”

“That’s not?—”

“You were supposed to be with them that day!” I roar. “With my father and Dimitri. You were supposed to watch their backs, protect them. Instead, you handed Anatoli the bullet he needed, and you left them wide fucking open!”

His face crumples. “I had no idea he’d go that far. I swear it, Petyr.”

“Well, you fucking should have,” I snarl. “Because now, my father is dead. My brother’s in a coma. And all of it is on you.”

“I—”

“You put them in Anatoli’s crosshairs. You lit the fuse. It’s you, Lev.Youkilled them.”

The car is heavy with silence. I realize that, for the first time,I admitted something out loud that I never wanted to: that Dimitri might be dead. He might never wake up.

My chest heaves. Rage and betrayal claw at me until my vision blurs red around the edges.

Lev can’t meet my eyes. Fucking coward. He just sits there, broken, waiting for my judgment. As if his confession could ever buy him mercy.

But it can’t.

Because he wasn’t just some soldier on the fringe. He was family. Lev was supposed to guard Dimitri’s back when I couldn’t.

And instead, he sold him out.

I should have seen it.I squeeze my fists against my thighs, feel the sting of my nails digging into my palms.

All those nights I told myself I was watching every man, I was lying to myself. Because I missed the one closest to me. The rot had been spreading under my nose for months, and I was too arrogant to see it.

And then I blamed her for everything.

Sima.

I looked her in the eye, heard her swear to me that she had nothing to do with Dimitri’s attack in the hospital, and convinced myself she was a siren singing lies into my ears. Thought she was a traitor. That I was letting her distract me.

But she wasn’t even in the picture when the worst betrayal happened. The day my brother and father got ambushed, Sima was out there planning weddings. She was living her life, unaware of the chaos that was plaguing mine.

Instead, it was Lev. It was all Lev.

Sima never cost me a goddamn thing.

I force calm into my voice. Even though I don’t fucking feel it. “Let’s just get this meeting over with,” I tell him. My tone is flat, gives nothing away. “Anatoli’s waiting. We’ll sort out the rest later.”