Page 28 of Scarlet Vows

Then she shoves a bite in my face.

It’s Alina, and though I’m not hungry, I dutifully eat it.

“Sooo good, isn’t it?” she asks. “And you didn’t answer me about the building.”

“I didn’t because you were shoving food in my mouth,malyshka.”

“Little one isn’t better in Russian, you know.”

“Malyshka. You were feeding me. Yes, one of Demyan’s first ventures on his own. It’s on the up-and-up. A revenue maker. He insisted I move in.”

“So it’s secure.”

“Of course it’s secure. Anywhere I am is secure.”

“Are you going to beat your chest next?”

“You are impossible.”

Her mouth curves. “I think I need to live here. This is bratva stuff we’re talking about. Each bratva seems to keep what they do to themselves, but marriages are looked at. They need to be real. Me living at Demyan’s and you here is too…odd. Unless you move in there?”

Fuck, marrying his sister clandestinely, and then moving in, is not my idea of smart. None of this is smart.

“Don’t push it,malyshka.”

She goes for the tiramisu next, and her eyes roll upwards. “So good.”

“To you, sweet things are always so good.”

“If I’m right, Ilya, I’m right.”

I snort. “If I do take over to get the inheritance, I don’t think I should be living under the roof of another pakhan.”

“I’ll move in here. There’s plenty of room. The bedroom on this floor is big, and with a woman’s touch in here, it’ll be paradise.”

“Aside from you filling my space with god only knows what, how do we explain that to Demyan?” This is it, my way out, so I push it. “We can’t. I think we should forget this, Alina. There are girls who want money, who?—”

“That’s easy,” she says, ignoring me. “Even with the staff, I hate being in that big house by myself. It reminds me of my childhood, of being suffocated.”

She looks down at her glass in her hand as her shoulders lift and fall.

“Alina?”

“And it’s the place I went right after…a-after Max.” When she looks at me, her devastation smashes my heart. “My room reminds me of the avalanche of grief. I know I’ve come far, but for a while, I held that grief like it was him, but now…now it reminds me too much of loss. And our little apartment was sold, so… I won’t lie and say I’m having nightmares still. I’m not. But Demyan doesn’t know that.”

“Alina.”

“Don’t you dare suddenly hand me sympathy.” Her eyes blaze.

“No way. You’re too spoiled.”

A small laugh breaks through. “We’ll use some of the truth. Just exaggerate it. Demyan’s so uncomfortable around feelings if they’re not for his kids or wife, so he’ll take it and run away. Trust me.”

She’s got it wrong. Well…she’s right. Demyan’s never been the type of man to wear his heart on his sleeve, but he loves his sister. He tried to comfort her. He’d never run from her pain.

But I let it go.

“So we tell him what?” I ask.