Page 37 of Scarlet Promise

Erin’s anger seems to melt some. She leads Alina inside, but Alina won’t budge from the kitchen.

Demyan flicks a glare at me. “What is it you want from me? You’ve ruined everything.”

“Me? Demyan, what is your problem here? You don’t want your sister to smile?”

He ignores me. “You’re a fuck, amudak.”

I’ve been called worse than an asshole.

“It’s not even the lying and the secrecy that gets me the most. It’s the betrayal.”

“I haven’t betrayed you, not once. And I never would.”

“You took my sister.”

“She’s grown and makes her own decisions,” I say, a sliver of discomfort passing through me.

“You took my sister, and you changed. You went and took the corrupt bratva of Belov. You aligned with the grandfather you always hated.”

I frown. “I never knew him, but yes, I hate the man. He manipulated this. I’m?—”

I stop. I owe Demyan nothing of the stipulations of the will, of the place between that rock and a hard place with no way out. I don’t need to tell him about trying to find my own way to manipulate the old man’s hold. Of my dead grandfather trying to rule my life beyond the grave.

Alina helped me find a way to circumvent it, and if we found something special between us, then…that’s a gift, not a punishment.

And it’s not Demyan’s business.

I won’t plead a case for myself because he should know me.

“So, what? You’re punishing me for taking the job as something we could use? Together?”

He snarls. “I want nothing of that bratva. Like I want nothing of you.”

The implication of his words isn’t lost. He’s forcing me out of his bratva, out of my role as his second.

Out of any role.

“Nothing? At all?” I ask.

“What I hate here is finding out that everything I thought you stood for has changed. Our morals no longer align. I try to run my bratva with integrity. Everything about the Belov Bratva isn’t good. And my sister getting kidnapped underlines that.”

“I didn’t kidnap her, Demyan.”

But he’s not really listening to me. “Since our morals aren’t in the same place, I’m now sure you’re no good for Alina. You’ll bring her nothing but heartache and pain.”

“My morals are now wrong?” I ask him softly. “Funny how, before you knew of me and Alina being any kind of thing, you were excited about the Belov Bratva. You even offered help. And I know you well enough to know that you were thinking of a merge, if I wanted that. You know it would be good. You said as much.”

“You hear what you want to hear,” he says, pushing a hand through his hair. “We were at dinner when one of my soldiers called, said you were headed this way.”

“You were spying?” I ask.

“I no longer trust you.”

I laugh. “Funny how you trusted me right up to finding out about me and Alina, but now I’m untrustworthy, I run a deeply amoral bratva, andmymorals have vanished. Tell me, is anyone good enough for your sister, or are you just going to ruin her life by making her marry some horrible fat old man you want something from? Tell me how that makesyoumoral.”

We glare at each other.

I lean in. “Tell me how that puts you on higher moral ground than my grandfather, who tried to do that to my mother? Or your father, who would’ve sold his precious little princess if he got a big enough offer? Or is it just because it’s me, Demyan?”