Page 21 of Toxic Salvation (Krayev Bratva #2)
VESPER
“You motherfuckers! You assholes! You bastards! You shit-eating, herpes-ridden douche bags!”
Pavel’s head snaps from me to Kovan like he can’t believe what’s coming out of my mouth. Osip, on the other hand, looks impressed. Right up until that last insult.
“You can’t be spreading rumors like that about a man such as myself who’s out here looking for love, Vesper,” he says with a sigh. “I do not have herpes.”
I bite down hard and spit at them, “I swear to God, once I get out of these stupid restraints, I will buy out every billboard in the county and put ‘ Osip Has The Clap’ on them in big, bold letters. I will follow you on every date you ever go on and scream it in the girl’s face. I will ruin your fucking life.”
“Jesus.” Pavel whistles, looking at Kovan. “She’s got a temper on her.”
“And she’s mean ,” Osip adds, rubbing his jaw like I just physically hit him.
I do manage to get a good kick in at his shins as he passes by me. He yelps and jumps backward, his eyes watering instantly.
“Goddammit, that hurt!”
“You don’t know what ‘hurt’ is yet, buddy,” I promise. “Come on over; I can educate you.”
Osip looks between me and Kovan. “Did you see this side of her before you knocked her up? If I were you, I’d be terrified to close my eyes at night.”
“I’ll bet closing their eyes is the only way any woman in her right mind can sleep with you in the first place!” I screech.
I hope my insults make sense. Right now, I’m too deep in my rage to be able to tell. Judging from that dopey hurt look on Osip’s face, though, I’m doing pretty freaking great.
Now, if only I could get a rise out of Kovan. The man is gratingly calm. And the calmer he is, the more unhinged I feel.
“Okay, I’m leaving before she tries to take a bite out of me,” Osip says. “I gotta get the hell?—”
“Osip. Sit.”
He freezes before turning to face Kovan regretfully. “Aw, come on, man. This is your shit show, not mine.”
“You work for me,” Kovan reminds him. “All my shit shows are yours. Where are those files I wanted you to look into?”
“Oh, right.” Osip roots around in his jacket pocket and pulls out several thin folders.
There’s a name imprinted on the front in thick block letters, but it flashes by me so fast that I can’t make it out.
Kovan opens the files and reads through them, his eyebrows raised with interest. The way he studies each page makes my stomach clench. Whatever’s in there, it’s about me. It has to be.
“Okay, Vesper, let’s talk.”
I spit at the ground beside my chair. “I have nothing to say to you. Not so long as this belt remains around my wrists.”
Pavel inches closer to Kovan. “Come on, bro, she’s pregnant. Let me untie her.”
“Are you insane?” Osip hisses. “You don’t let a rabid wolf loose in the henhouse!”
Despite my anger, I can’t help but snort at that one. “Are you comparing yourself to a hen, Osip?”
“I was comparing you to a rabid wolf.”
I shrug. “I’m happy to be the wolf. Are you happy to be a scared little chicken?”
“I see your schtick.” He grumbles. “Mind games, huh? A woman’s best friend. Well, I refuse to let you psych me out. You don’t know me. I’m all man.”
“What kind of man has to tell everyone that that’s what he is?”
“Mean! Again!” Osip cries out. He points an accusatory finger at me. “Never release her.”
“Osip.” Kovan rolls his eyes. “Do me a favor and shut up.”
“I’ll do you one better.” He shoots me a dirty look. “I’ll get out. Pavel, you coming, too? Before the she-wolf takes your balls?”
Pavel throws me a wink. “Right behind you, buddy.”
The two of them disappear, leaving me alone with Kovan again. He doesn’t seem to notice. He’s too busy poring over the files Osip just gave him.
My curiosity gets the better of me. “What are those?”
“These?” He flips through them quickly and stashes them on the desk behind him. “These are important medical records.”
I tense, forgetting about the belt around my wrists for the first time since they went on. “Are you talking about more organ donors? Because if so, that’s not a list of people—it’s a list of lambs to the slaughter.”
Kovan’s green eyes are clear and bright. He drags the chair next to me across the sleek tile, then spins it around and straddles it backward. “I told you already, Vesper: I’m done with that trade. I never wanted to be a part of it, and now that I have some power, I’m ending it.”
He holds my gaze, making sure to look me in the eyes as he speaks. Surely, he can’t be lying, right? Because if he could look me in the eye and lie that easily, he has to be a complete and total psychopath.
As if he can read my mind, he adds, “I’m telling you the truth. I only hope you will do me the same courtesy.”
That confuses me. “What do you mean?”
He glances over at the files on his desk. “There are a few things that aren’t adding up. For example, why you hacked into the hospital’s database a week after you and I broke up.”
My pulse stutters. “I… I didn’t?—”
“Don’t lie to me, Vesper. I know a liar when I see one, and right now, you’re working overtime.”
The restraints around my wrists feel a whole lot tighter suddenly. “Let me go.”
“I will,” he says pleasantly. “After you’re done answering my questions.”
“This is insane! I’m pregnant! With your baby!”
He glances casually at the clock on the wall opposite us. “Which reminds me, our doctor’s appointment is in less than an hour. So you better start talking fast.”
“Kovan—”
“You think you’re the only one with a reason not to trust me, Vesper? Have you stopped to consider, even for a moment, that I might have my own reasons for not trusting you?”
“Excuse me?!”
“You were found sneaking out of Jeremy’s office twice.”
“Because I was trying to dig up information on the bastard and his plans! Not because I had anything to say to him.”
“And what about the hacking?” Kovan continues.
I bite down on my tongue, wondering how on earth I’m going to get myself out of this one. The truth sits heavy in my chest, demanding to be released. In the end, I decide on something novel.
I go with honesty.
“You want the freaking truth?” I scream. “Fine! Here it is: I’m as much of a criminal as you are. I did bad things, and I did them for personal gain. Not for money… but for my mother.”
Kovan blinks in surprise. “What did you say?”
“The clinical trial that I got my mom on—she didn’t actually qualify for it.
So I falsified her documents and the documents of another patient so that they would be kicked off the trial and my mom could take their place.
” I look down, unable to meet his gaze any longer.
“I know I did a terrible thing, and I will probably always feel terrible about it. But I don’t regret it.
Because at least now, my mom has a small chance of survival.
And I need her to survive. I need her to survive to see her grandson. ”
The confession pours out of me in a rush, and suddenly, I’m sobbing into my chest because my hands are too tightly bound to be of any use. They just lie there limply, tired of struggling.
I stop only because I feel a stroke of warmth at my thigh. I look up to find Kovan’s face hanging right in front of me, those green eyes so arresting that they take my breath away.
I choke on my own sobs, right in his face. But he doesn’t seem to mind. Instead, he wipes away my tears with his thumb. Then, slowly, he starts to undo the belt around my wrists.
I’m expecting a mark, an imprint, maybe even a scar. But the belt comes off and my wrists are free and clear, not a scratch in sight. I guess the pain was all in my head.
Or in my heart.
“Thank you,” I murmur.
“Osip and Pavel are actively covering up your tracks as we speak,” he informs me. “After tonight, no one will be able to trace those falsified documents back to you.”
I grip his arms, my body curving into his, seeking out his warmth. “You’re burying the evidence.”
“Let’s just call it ‘cleanup.’ A little light housekeeping.”
“You shouldn’t. I deserve to be caught. I deserve to have my medical license suspended. I deserve to be fired. I’m a bad doctor. I’m a worse person.”
“No, you’re not.” He shakes his head. “Maybe an outsider might look at you and see a bad doctor. But me? I just see a person who’s willing to go to any lengths to protect her family.”
“You don’t have to do this for me, you know.”
“Yes, I do,” he says fiercely. “She’s your family. And you’re my family.” He places his hand on my belly. “And in this Bratva, family is everything.”
He approaches me. For a moment, I think he’s going to kiss me. I wait, breath held, eyes half-closed…
But in the end, he bypasses my lips entirely. His mouth brushes against my ear, so close that I can feel his gentle breaths. “Take my hand.”
Disappointment settles softly in my stomach as I take his hand and he pulls me to my feet. “Where are we going?”
“We have an appointment, remember? We’re going to go see our son.”