Page 111 of Darkest Sin

I stumble to a halt when I see a car parked in my driveway. It’s not one of mine. The back seat window slowly rolls down as I approach.

It’s Nico.

Of course it fucking is.

“You’re here to kill me, aren’t you?”

“I am.” His eyes sweep over me. “But it seems that someone already tried to do that.”

“Yeah. Cillian. And Denis. They’re working together now.”

“How do you know this?” Judging from the expression on Nico’s face, he didn’t have this information. It feels good to know something he doesn’t.

“Doesn’t feel good to be tricked, does it? They both shot at me. Denis told me to my face that he’s going to marry my wife to Cillian. They left me for dead. Denis and Cillian are going to join forces and they’re going to be more powerful than you are. So yes, you can kill me. But you’re still going to have a problem on your fucking hands.”

“When is the wedding?”

“Do you think they told me? No. They shot at me before I could ask. I have no fucking clue. I’m going to figure it out. So either kill me or don’t. But I’m not going to stop until I get my wife back.”

“I appreciate your determination, Mikhail. It’s an admirable quality of yours.”

“Glad I can amuse you, Nico. Now either kill me or leave.”

He leans forward, resting his arms on the window. “Or I have an idea. We work together. I want to kill Cillian for backstabbing me. You want to get your wife back. We work to do this and then we can go back to hating each other.”

“I suggested making a deal with you weeks ago and you declined.”

“I know. And I’ve come to see the error of my ways. I’m not saying we work together forever. I know we don’t trust each other. But we have a common enemy at the moment. You want your wife back, and I want Cillian dead for backstabbing me. He thought he could kill you when it was my right. How about a temporary truce?”

“It’s not a bad idea,” I grumble, “except for the fact that I don’t fucking trust you.”

Nico chuckles like all of this is funny to him. “I know. But for this. Let’s work together for this. It will piss of Cillian even more and that will just make me laugh. What do you say?”

I know trusting Nico, even for a short time, is utterly stupid. But I’m hurt and I want Natalya back and I’m low on resources. I could use his help, not that I would ever admit it.

So with a heavy sigh, I nod. “Fine. Just this once we work together. And you will not hurt Natalya.”

He raises his hands in surrender. “I get it. You’ll kill me. I’ll find out where they are and get back to you.”

“I know where they are. They’re at Denis’s house. We’ll go there tomorrow. Attack. Before Denis can marry Natalya off to Cillian.”

“Sounds like a plan. See you tomorrow, Mikhail.” He rolls his window back up and the car leaves the driveway.

I just made a deal with Nico Bernardi, the man I fucking despise most in this world, to save my wife. That’s how fucking desperate I am.

Natalya

Denis opens my door the following morning. I barely got any sleep last night. Mostly, I watched the sun fall and the sun rise.

And now, I know what day it is. The day he’s going to force me to marry Cillian because I’m a widow. Because Mikhail is dead.

“It’s time, Natalya. Don’t make me drag you out of that bed.”

Slowly, I push myself up. “What now?”

“I have a dress you can wear. It’s downstairs. The whole family will be in attendance for your wedding this time. No sneaking off like you did last time. You will marry Cillian and you will smile.”

“And if I don’t?”