Page 28 of Toxic Salvation (Krayev Bratva #2)

KOVAN

“That escalated fast,” Vesper mumbles as the two of us stare after Yana’s retreating figure.

“Which is why I told you not to engage with that psycho!” Pavel snaps as he joins us. “Didn’t I say that, like, a dozen times?”

Vesper shrugs. “Yana was bullying Luka. I couldn’t just stand there and let her get away with it.”

“You’re pregnant.” My temper flares as I turn to glare at her. “Do you have any idea how easily she could have discovered that if she’d tackled you? You took an unnecessary risk today.”

“It wasn’t unnecessary. I was protecting Luka.”

I want to shake her and kiss her at the same time. She’s infuriating and brave and completely fucking reckless. “Luka can handle Yana.”

“He shouldn’t have to!” Fire burns in her blue eyes. “He’s a child, Kovan! He’ll have plenty of battles to fight in his life, but his own mother shouldn’t be one of them.”

Her cheeks are flushed, her hair escaping from its ponytail. She looks ready to march back into battle for that kid without a second thought. Nothing I say will ever change that.

“I should go check on him,” she says before I can figure out what to tell her. “He told Yana he hated her and ran upstairs crying.”

“I’ll go.” I start toward the house.

She follows. Of course she does.

“You don’t have to come,” I add.

“I’m not going to push my way in,” she says quickly. “But if he wants me there, I want to be available.”

When we reach Luka’s room, his door is open. He’s curled up on his window seat, staring down at the garden where we just left Yana.

“Hey, buddy.” I step inside while Vesper hangs back in the hallway.

He looks up at me. “Where’s Vesper?”

Two seconds. That’s how long it took for him to dismiss me and ask for her instead. If I didn’t care about her so much, that would piss me the hell off.

“I’m right here, sweetheart,” she answers, appearing in the doorway. “I’m sorry about what happened downstairs.”

He launches himself into her arms. “Why are you sorry? You weren’t the one being a bitch.”

“Luka!” Vesper gasps, cupping his face while I bite back a laugh.

“What?” He looks up at her without an ounce of remorse. “That’s what she is.”

Vesper looks at me over Luka’s head, eyebrow raised.

I shrug. “Kid has a point.”

She tries not to smile. “Still, we don’t use words like that, Luka.”

“What about ‘poopy-headed bully’?”

“Um… sure. Given the circumstances, that’s allowed.”

“Good. Because that’s what she is.”

“Seconded!” Vesper raises her hand, and Luka dissolves into giggles.

Just like that, his tears are gone. He’s smiling now, bouncing on his toes like we just told him we installed a chocolate fountain in his room.

“How about we go out for ice cream?” I hear myself offer.

Vesper turns to look at me, clearly surprised. I look away before she can see too much.

The truth is, Vesper and Luka have something special. And I don’t want to be left out anymore.

An hour later, Waylen, Osip, Pavel, and Luka are sprawled across the lawn at Pacific Park, working their way through double-scoop ice cream cones we drove twenty minutes to get.

On any other day, I’d join them. But right now, the only person I want to sit next to is the blonde destroying a double chocolate heath bar cone with more enthusiasm than should be legal.

Best eleven dollars I ever spent.

I watch her attack the ice cream, tongue darting out to catch every drop. Each lick sends heat straight through me. By the time I’m so hard I can barely walk, I decide to take the empty spot next to her on the bench.

She stiffens when I sit down but keeps her attention on her dessert.

“How’s the ice cream?” I ask awkwardly.

As conversation starters go, that’s pathetic. But every other topic I consider feels too heavy, too loaded with everything we’re not saying.

“I’d offer you a taste,” she begins, “but honestly? This is too good to share.”

“You’d share with Luka if he asked,” I accuse.

Her expression softens. “You know I’d do anything for that kid. Including share my heath bar cone.”

“I believe you. Especially after what I saw today.”

She cringes. “I’m sorry about that. I meant to keep my cool, but that woman just…

” She shakes her head. “She rubs me the wrong way. The way she was messing with Luka’s head is criminal.

” She turns to face me. “Yana told him that you and I wouldn’t love him anymore once we start a family of our own. ”

My hands clench. “She really is a piece of work.”

“The absolute worst.” We sit quietly for a minute, watching Luka tease Osip about something. “You didn’t have to step in like that, you know.”

“What do you mean?”

“Earlier, with Yana. You didn’t have to say what you said. I’m not your woman, and that’s okay.”

I nod, but I don’t answer right away. There’s a tiny smudge of chocolate at the corner of her mouth. I want to lick it off.

“Are you alright?” I ask instead.

She watches Luka and the others. “Of course. I can take that bitch any day.”

“I’m not talking about Yana. Well, not just about Yana.”

Understanding passes over Vesper’s face, but she continues to work at her ice cream for a while. She keeps staring across the park as she does, like there’s something there just out of sight that she’s yearning to see. “I’ve spent every minute since you told me thinking about what you said.”

“I know it’s a lot to process.”

“I have to reconcile who my father really was with who I thought he was. It’s harder than I expected. He’s been dead for years, and still…” She trails off. “It’s so hard to believe he did what he did.”

“He was your hero,” I fill in.

She nods. “And that right there, that’s the problem with heroes. You don’t see them clearly. You wrap them in this perfect image that doesn’t match reality. That’s on me, not him.”

“His sins aren’t yours, Vesper.” My hand twitches in her direction.

It’s torture not touching her. She’s carrying my child. She feels like mine. And despite what she thinks, I meant every word when I told Yana to keep her hands off my woman.

“I know that. I can’t take on his sins when I have plenty of my own to deal with.”

“Come on.”

Finally, she looks at me. “What do you mean?”

“You did one thing to save your mother, but you’ve spent your entire life saving other people’s children. You saved Luka, too, and you didn’t even know him then.” I shift to sit more upright. “I think you’ve had it wrong this whole time, Vesper. Your father was never the hero. You are.”

Her eyes brim with tears immediately. She tries to hide behind her hair, but I can’t stop myself from reaching out, tucking the blonde strands behind her ear.

She tenses but doesn’t pull away.

“Thank you for telling me the truth, Kovan,” she murmurs, which is a deflection if I’ve ever heard one. “I know it couldn’t have been easy.”

“I figured if we’re going to do this—” I gesture toward her stomach “—we might as well start with honesty.”

“You know the same applies to you, right? You’re not responsible for your father’s sins any more than I am for mine.”

I almost smile. “In my case, it’s more complicated.”

“I know it is. And I know you’re not the hero here, Kovan. But you’re not a monster, either. Good men do bad things sometimes.”

“You think I’m a good man?”

She takes another lick of her cone, and this time, I can’t stop myself. I reach out and wipe the chocolate from the corner of her mouth with my thumb.

She blushes but doesn’t comment on the touch. “I’ve seen how far you’ll go to protect Luka. And me. It means more to me than you’ll ever know. In fact, it might mean more to me than right and wrong.”

I study her face, trying to decode what she’s really saying. She seems determined to avoid my eyes. “What exactly are you trying to tell me, Vesper?”

She closes her eyes and tilts her face up to the sun. We have maybe an hour of daylight left, but right now, it feels endless.

“I guess what I’m trying to say is that there might be a chance for us.” She opens her eyes and looks directly at me. “If you want it.”

I breathe quietly. After everything we’ve been through, everything I’ve done wrong, she’s still willing to try. That means more than she could ever understand.

“Vesper…”

“I know it’s complicated. I know we have a lot to work through. But I love Luka, and I…” She takes a shaky breath. “I love you, too. Despite everything. Maybe because of everything.”

I reach for her hand. “You sure about that?”

“No,” she admits. “I’m not sure about anything anymore. But I’m tired of being afraid. I’m tired of running from what I want because it might hurt me.”

“And what do you want?”

She turns her hand over in mine, lacing our fingers together. “I want us. All of us. You, me, Luka, the baby. I want to try to make this work.”

I bring her hand to my lips and press a kiss to her knuckles. “Then let’s try.”