Page 11 of Her Rustanov Husband (Ruthless Bullies #2)

Consequences

YOM

No, not once did it occur to him that the sin of omission that started the night of their engagement would be the end of them.

Not until the black Nakamura Titan rolled to a stop and three people stepped out: his Uncle Nikolai, Suro Nakamura, and Suro’s wife, Tasha.

It was her presence that jolted Yom most of all. Tasha’s round, usually cheerful face wore the same grave expression he’d only ever seen once before—at the funeral Uncle Nikolai had insisted they all attend for his family’s beloved pit bull, Backup.

But why was she here now, wearing that look?

As if in answer, Tasha held out her arms. And Lydia suddenly broke down, running to her like a little girl barely holding it together until her mother arrived to pick her up.

That was when Yom understood. Why Lydia had lingered outside. Why they had come without his asking. Why Tasha wore her funeral face.

Suro’s wife was here to mourn.

Not a dog. But the death of his and Lydia’s relationship.

His worst suspicion was confirmed when Tasha tucked his fiancée— his Library Girl—under her arm and started guiding her toward the black Titan.

No. No…

The phone slipped from his hand as he charged out of the house—only to slam into a wall of Russian and Japanese muscle.

“I am sorry, Tyoma.” Nikolai’s green eyes, which had shined bright with congratulations at their engagement party, held no light now. “She is asking to be let go from you after incident with her brother. And we are here to make sure you honor her request.”

His uncle spoke to him in Russian. Technically, Yom understood without need for translation what he was saying, but he could not reconcile it.

A buzzing filled his ears—static, chainsaws—then a memory: the caveat he’d made Lydia agree to, back when they first established “suitcase” as the safe word for rough conversations.

“If I am upsetting you too terribly, you cannot run, zayka . You must stay and give me more chances after you say ‘suitcase.’ This is my most important condition. Do you agree ?”

She had agreed. She had agreed!

She couldn’t… she couldn’t leave him without giving him that chance?—

“Lydia!” he yelled over Nikolai’s and Suro’s shoulders, his voice ragged. “You cannot do this. You must let me convince you to forgive me. Remember—this is our condition you are agreeing to.”

Only then, after nearly twelve hours, did Lydia finally turn to him, address him.

Pretty brown eyes flashing, she slipped out from under Tasha’s arm and strode back toward him, stopping just short of the barrier she’d requested.

Her face crumpled. But only for a fleeting moment before it hardened again. “Well, I guess I’m not the only one breaking promises.”

Her quiet words sliced through Yom worse than his finka knife. Spurred him into shouting back, “Do you think I am not trying to spare his miserable life? For weeks I am trying to let it go, as you say.”

He shoved so hard against Nikolai and Suro’s shoulders that he actually managed to break through. But the two older men seized his arms before he could reach her.

Still, he fought to defend himself. “He showed up to our engagement party, thinking he had the right. What kind of husband would I be if I let someone who hurt you continue to breathe?”

“The kind who keeps his promises,” she answered, slow and sharp, over-enunciating as if he were too stupid to understand.

Russian curses burned on his tongue. Along with the truth—that it had been an idiotic promise in the first place. But he swallowed it. The last time he’d let himself speak these thoughts, she’d shut down completely and refused to speak to him at all.

So instead, he forced himself to address her with a soft voice. “I am sorry for not taking promise seriously. I am letting your brother live. What else are you requiring to convince you not to destroy us over this?”

It was the barest, rawest he had ever allowed himself to be. Pride stripped. Practically begging.

But Lydia’s expression remained unmoved.

“I’m not destroying us.” Angry tears welled in her eyes.

“This is all you , Artyom Rustanov. I was willing to give up that apprenticeship in Canada. To set aside my plans for a quiet life outside the spotlight to be your hockey wife. I did everything you ever asked, and the only thing I ever asked of you was that you not try to torture my brother to death in a barn.”

Yom’s heart sank. Put that way, he could see it. Through her eyes, his apology was worthless.

The only thing he could do now was beg her to believe he would never betray her again.

“ Zayka …” he began.

“I am not your fucking bunny!” she screamed, cutting him off before he could finish.

She’d once been charmed when she discovered the meaning of the word, but now the endearment appeared to enrage her.

“This.” She jabbed a finger between them. “You and me. It was a mistake. You made me believe it was true love. But you’re a monster. And I can’t build a life—marriage, children, any of it—with a monster . Do you understand? I want nothing— nothing to do with you.”

She was so little, so much weaker than him in every way. Yet she could not have hurt him more.

“You do not mean that,” he said.

“Oh, I most certainly do.” She wiped away the angry tears.

“I’m seeing clearly for the first time since we met, and I don’t want this.

I don’t want you . I’m taking that job in Canada, and if you follow me, stalk me, or pull any of your total black flag psycho shit, I swear—” Her voice broke, but her eyes burned into his.

“I will kill myself before I ever let you manipulate me again.”

Yom went cold.

Lydia had a bad habit of putting herself down when they first began.

She called it self-deprecation, but he had never allowed it.

Because, unlike her, he had known the hard truth from the start: she was smart.

Much smarter than he. Her so-called “brain blips”—her dyslexia, her attention deficit disorder—only masked that fact.

And this speech proved him right.

Yes, she was correct about him being a psycho. Following her to Canada, even if it ruined his hockey career in the USA, would have been his first instinct.

“I am obsessing over you.” That was hard fact, without exaggeration.

But this tactic—telling him flatly she wanted nothing to do with him, swearing she’d end her life if he tried—this was the only response that could have stopped him. The only thing that made him go still in his uncle’s and Suro’s hold.

Silence crushed down on them, everything they had built collapsing under words and actions that could never be taken back.

Eventually, Tasha murmured, “Come on, sweetie,” and led Lydia toward the waiting Titan.

And Yom had no choice but to let her go.

He let Paul live. He let Tasha guide away the love of his life.

And he did not see her again….

Not until the night she walked into the Vegas sports bar where he was having drinks with Geoff Latham and Lukas Brandt before the sasha x kasha show.