Page 30 of His Darkest Obsession

“But whymarryher?” Roma thuds the bottle down. “You can do what you were planning on doing by parading her on your arms in public. She doesn’t have to be your wife for that.”

He’s not necessarily wrong. Marriages in the bratva are rarely for love, and few wives expect their husbands to be faithful to them.

But every once in a while, you get a pakhan’s wife who actually believes in their marriage vows enough todosomething.

When that happens, things tend to get complicated.

And I don’t need things to get any more complicated than they already are.

“You think Lola would’ve been fine with me parading Indigo around on my arms?”

Roma flips me his middle finger and shakes his head, smirking. “Don’t tell me you did this for Lola’s fucking honor.”

“I didn’t.” I tell him. “I did it to keep Indigo safe from her.”

“Never took you for the altruistic kind of person.”

Neither did I.

Miels is crying again tonight. She's been doing that a lot this summer.

I snatch up the bottle, take a long, hard swig, and swallow the burn down my throat. Red rage starts creeping into the edge of my vision and I start talking to keep it at the edges.

“I have a job for you.”

“Just one?” Roma extends his hand for the bottle.

“Just one.” I pass it back to him. “I need you to get the family signet ring from Mother.”

“Yebats!” Roma curses. “You’re going to make this real? Why?”

That’s a very good question. Maybe it’s because I can still feel the way her hands were shaking when she had the razor up against my throat. I can still sense her desperation in that moment.

Because I still want to unravel the mystery that is Indigo Taylor—of why she didn’t kill me when she had every reason to.

It can’t just be because of the innocence I can feel on her skin. I’ve done worse things to plenty of innocent people.

It’s something else that I can’t quite put my finger on just yet.

“Tolya?” Roma’s voice shakes me out of my reverie.

“It’s what’s best.” My voice strains. “For the family, and for the Bratva.”

Roma holds my gaze a moment longer, but he doesn’t argue. That’s good. Because I’m in no mood to try and explain something to him that I don’t even understand.

He looks at the bottle for a long while, and then back at me. Finally, he sighs, puts it on the table and slides it over to me. “A word of warning before I go?”

“Didn’t think you’d leave without one.”

“I can see the logic behind what you’re doing,” he says. “Believe me, I do. But the Volkovs will see only opportunity with you marrying Indigo, and?—”

“That’s exactly what I’m preparing for. If Indigo can put Bennet, and by extension, the city in my pocket, then we won’t need the Volkovs.”

“Let me finish.”

I glare at him.

“Mother won’t hand over the signet ring lightly,” he says. “Not after what she did to get it.”