Page 67 of Deceptive Vows

“What do you really want with me?”

Her voice sounds small in the dark.

“What do you mean, Malyshka?”

“I get the marriage. Marry me and rule the cartel, but why are we doing this part? Why are you doing it?”

It’s a good question. One I should be asking myself, but I don’t care to because the answer is obvious.

“Because I want to,” I decide to tell her.

There’s another beat of silence before she draws in a small breath.

“What happens when you stop wanting to, Mikhail? What happens long after you get the cartel and don’t need me anymore?”

I don’t know.

The answer is, I have no idea. She’s asking me what we’ll do after we get married. That’s the bridge I haven’t crossed yet. And I won’t be crossing it tonight.

“Go to sleep, princess.”

I can’t see her face, but I know she’s hurt by my lack of an answer. She’s probably thinking all sorts of shit. Maybe even wondering if the time will come when I decide to kill her and her precious José. We come from the same world, and she’s not naïve to the darkness that exists within our sphere.

With a father like Raul, she wouldn’t have been innocent to the thoughts and plots of bad men like me who only know death and darkness.

Marriage alone is all that’s required to take over Raul’s empire and assets. It doesn’t mean I have to stay married to her. Or that she has to stay alive or in my life.

We stay like that in the silence until she eventually falls asleep. I wanted her to drift off first, but I still watch her long after with her question ringing through my mind.

It hasn’t even been a full week since she’s been in my life, yet I feel like this.

We’ll be married next weekend. How can I be worried about what will happen after that when I’m stuck in the in-between?

When my eyelids droop, I give in to sleep. It feels like I’m only out for a few seconds before I hear screaming.

My eyes snap open, and I know I couldn’t possibly have been sleeping for seconds because bright sunlight beams through the windows. And the screaming is coming from next to me.

Adriana thrashes on the bed, lost in a nightmare, lost to me. She shakes her head side to side and screams again, louder this time.

“No!” she cries. “No, please, please don’t kill her. Don’t kill my mother!”

“Papa, save her,pleasesave her. Don’t let him kill my mother.”

What the hell?

Seeing her distress, I get up and take hold of her shoulders, trying to wake her.

It takes her a full minute before she opens her eyes and tears are streaming down her cheeks.

She’s breathing like she’s just run a marathon, and her skin is as flustered as it was yesterday when I left her.

Her beautiful eyes are riddled with fear, which doesn’t change when she spots me.

She tries to calm herself, but it doesn’t work. She’s breathing too hard and in ragged breaths that remind me of my younger days when I was subjected to the shit Ivan used to put me through.

I get up and open the window to let in some air. It’s only when the blast of cold air hits her face that her breathing calms and she gathers her composure.

“Are you okay?” I ask.